AI Data Center War: Where Democrats, Republicans in Key Senate Races Stand - Newsweek
AI Data Center War: Where Democrats, Republicans in Key Senate Races Stand - Newsweek
摘要: By
Jesus Mesa
Reporter
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正文
Jesus Mesa
Reporter
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Prefer Newsweek on Google
to see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Data centers have become one of the most unpredictable issues of the 2026
midterms
, cutting across party lines in ways few other topics do.
Polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center found 61 percent of Americans oppose new data centers in their area, including 69 percent of
Democrats
and 54 percent of
Republicans
. Echelon Insights found voters would rather have a nuclear plant in their community than an
data center.
That backlash is now playing out directly in the six
races the Cook Political Report rates as toss-ups heading into November.
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Politics
Alaska: Republican Senator Dan Sullivan vs. Democrat Mary Peltola
Iowa: Republican Representative Ashley Hinson vs. Democratic State Representative Josh Turek
Maine: Republican Senator
Susan Collins
vs. Democrat Troy Jackson
Michigan: Republican Mike Rogers vs. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed
Ohio: Republican Senator Jon Husted vs. Democrat Sherrod Brown
Texas: Republican Ken Paxton vs. Democratic State Representative James Talarico
Newsweek
reached out to all 12 candidates in these six races for comment.
Abdul El-Sayed vs. Mike Rogers: AI Data Center Views Compared in Michigan Race
Michigan has become ground zero for the issue. El-Sayed has spent months hammering data centers on the trail, telling one crowd that "people really effing hate data centers." His campaign has proposed "terms of engagement" requiring developers to cover rate increases, guarantee grid reliability and use closed-loop cooling systems, and he has said he will not support new projects until Washington sets federal guardrails.
Rogers held a different position for most of the race, favoring state and local control over federal intervention. That changed this week. After The Lever reported Rogers had r