'Cost Me the Election': Data Centers Trigger Voter Backlash

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Jun 25, 2026 at 05:47 AM EDT updated Jun 25, 2026 at 05:55 AM EDT


A wave of voter anger over massive data center projects is beginning to reshape U.S. politics, with local officials and senior lawmakers losing elections after backing controversial developments tied to the artificial intelligence boom.

In Utah on Wednesday, State Senate President J. Stuart Adams—one of the most powerful Republicans in the state—lost his primary election after supporting a major data center development near the Great Salt Lake, in one of the clearest signs yet of the growing political risks tied to the industry.

At the local level, the fallout was just as direct. “Do I think that the data center vote cost me the election? Yes I do,” former Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry said after conceding his primary race, after voting to advance the same project.

The defeats of Adams and multiple county officials tied to the proposal suggest that opposition to data centers is no longer confined to planning disputes—but is emerging as a voting issue capable of reshaping elections.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/cost-me-the-election-data-centers-trigger-voter-backlash-12118327

[FakeNoose]

1. Wake up call ... this is being felt everywhere

The incumbents of both parties need to be wary of any promises made by future data centers. The voters know what's really happening even if the politicians don't.

[Bengus81]

2. LOL...aw shucks bozo. Try listing to your constituents instead of Trump

You wanted to build those fucking things near the Salt lake? Waiting for ones proposed on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. Constituents? As a Republican, he has to listen to Larry Ellison, ...

... and other tech billionaires who want big data centers to process AI and to mine bit coins. And if it takes burning many cubic miles of natural gas to run the generators, that's someone else's problem!

Constituents can pound sand.

[Miguelito Loveless]

6. The problem is

they can do the Tech Bros bidding and lose the rural vote.

[mwmisses4289]

3. Yes, well the few AI data centers already built have shown people what fuckups they are.

Sweetheart deals to the rich investors who back them regarding electric and water rates, noise, destruction of both human and wildlife habitat, deals for these places made behind closed doors and then presented to the public as fait accompli; yeah, i can see why any politician idiotic enough to vote for these things are going down.
On a side note- caught the end of a story on our local news about companies who went to AI thinking to replace their workforce are now rehiring people to replace the AI.

[Crowman2009]

5. Data centers are infinitely worse than state-funded sports arenas/stadiums.

At least with sporting venues there is a significant amount of local employment, it doesn't consume nowhere near the same amount of water & electricity, and the noise is bearable.

[patphil]

8. Yes, and there's a lot more humanity in a sports venue than a data center.

[AZProgressive]

11. They are both bad

With sports stadiums that is still a large transfer of taxpayer funds into the hands of private interests. I used to think stadiums were good for the local economy until I took an Economics of Sports course and learned they are often bad deals for the local city/county/state and the reason why is the leagues have leverage with relocation threats and even if the local city turns down the deal they will find somewhere else willing to pay for their stadium. A lot of the businesses that rely on the stadium often rely on it during the season and with the amount of money a stadium costs there are much better and more efficient things to help with things like employment and also projects that everyone can enjoy. The problem with the sports stadiums is even those that don't use the stadium and never have any plans to pay for the stadium.

I agree the environmental concerns for data centers are much worse.

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Let's hope the trend continues across the nation

And that Dems learn sooner rather than later that no matter how much money the techbros throw at them, that if they support data centers, they do so at their own peril.

Like inflation, data centers are one of those issues where the impact cuts across all regional, racial and partisan boundaries.

[odins folly]

9. Well golly, I feel really bad for those who lost

So in a nutshell, AI is the wave of the future, as long as EVERYONE uses it. And in order for it to work really, really good we need these gigantic, resource sucking processing plants. But we shouldn’t really get too balled up about how much we deplete the natural resources because when we really get going, the AI will let us know how to refurbish the wasted resources… plus we get to figure out how to get richer, and if EVERYONE is onboard with the AI this will happen sooner than later.

Here’s some campaign cash to vote the right way for AI…..

[maxsolomon]

10. It should have cost you the election.

A data center in the Wasatch Valley is a death sentence for the water supply and the Salt Lake.

Heedless LDS-driven development has already sucked so much out of the drainage's meager volume that the Salt Lake is drying up. Even Mormons object to dust storms of toxic lake sediment.