GOP Candidates Break With Trump on Data Centers to Boost Midterm Odds

Members of the public attend a planning and zoning commission meeting to discuss the Prometheus Hyperscale data center on May 27, 2026 in Evanston, Wyoming. Photographer: Natalie Behring/Getty Images Photo by Natalie Behring /Photographer: Natalie Behring/Ge

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(Bloomberg) — Progressive lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders led the first wave of opposition to data centers. Now Republican candidates around the US are seizing on the fervor even as President Donald Trump actively courts tech titans and promotes the rapid, streamlined expansion of the energy-hungry facilities.

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The divide within the GOP months before the crucial midterm elections comes as the $725 billion data center rush helps drive up utility bills as much as 267% and otherwise upends American life. Less than a third of Americans approve of the fast pace of construction and most would oppose building a data center in their own community, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in June.

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Since December, 25 federal and gubernatorial candidates have run ads either promoting their own opposition to data centers or slamming their opponent for supporting these complexes, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of campaign ads across streaming, television, Facebook and Google. Twelve — nearly half — are Republicans.

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“We’re seeing this play out on both sides,” said Clifford Young, chair of Ipsos Public Affairs and Strategic Insights. “Americans believe the system is broken. Republicans tend to be more anti-establishment today than Democrats, so this is an easy softball in this electoral cycle.”

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Some Republicans, like Trump ally and Florida governor candidate Byron Donalds, are trying to take a middle-of-the-road approach more in line with the president’s views.

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Donalds, in an ad run by a political action committee supporting him, pledged to ensure data centers don’t drive up utility rates. The proposal mirrors a Trump-backed voluntary commitment signed by the biggest tech companies to secure their own electricity for data centers to avoid spiking peoples’ utility bills.

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Others are drawing a harder line more reflective of the total moratorium pushed by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. Chuck Gray, a Republican running for Wyoming’s sole House seat, bills himself as the state’s protector against “big tech billionaires.” 

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“In Congress, I’ll stop data centers,” Gray promises over footage of him driving a pickup truck across untouched expanses of land. “If Silicon Valley wants to build their liberal empire, they can do it somewhere else.” 

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Republican candidates from Georgia to Nevada have taken a similar tack. In Wisconsin, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Tom Tiffany is airing an ad where he stands next to a cow and pledges to stop “big data from bulldozing our farmland.” 

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AI barely registered as a significant issue for voters during the last election cycle just two years ago. But in the run-up to November’s midterms, it’s become a central theme.

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Aside from grappling with the effects of the rapid proliferation of data centers from coast to coast, fears are mounting over AI-related job loss. So-called deepfakes have shifted from a novelty — like clips showing Joe Biden and Trump eating ice cream on a park bench — to an increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous element of campaigning. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has become one of the biggest financial forces in the midterms as dueling super political action committees backed by tech billionaires and AI companies spend millions to elect candidates aligned with their agenda.