AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — When the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, Gina Hinojosa, launched her campaign last year, data centers were barely on anyone’s radar. But with November’s election now just three months away, the perceived threat these massive facilities pose to rural life, ranchland, and already-strained water supplies has emerged as a potential defining issue — one that’s fracturing the conservative rural base that Republicans have long relied on.
The growing public anger over energy-hungry server warehouses that fuel artificial intelligence is now influencing statewide races from Arizona to Ohio to New York. In Texas, where Republicans have held dominance for thirty years, Democrats see a rare opening.
Speaking to a crowd of roughly 160 people seated on folding chairs at an Amarillo social club in the Texas panhandle, Hinojosa used some sarcasm to introduce the topic. “There is this little issue that I recently started hearing about that I wanted to tell you about, in case you don’t know,” she said. “It’s this issue of data centers.”
The audience responded with boos. Hinojosa continued: “They are owned by the richest men in the world. We’re all footing the bill. There are no rules. It is the wild west of data centers.”
Across the country, the rapid expansion of massive data center complexes has already upended local races, frequently uniting conservatives and liberals in opposition to nearby projects. Residents object to the secrecy that often surrounds these developments and worry about air, noise, water, and light pollution. They fear rising electric bills, drying wells, and the loss of open space, farmland, and forests.
That discontent has now reached top-of-the-ticket contests. In Ohio, Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown ran a television ad targeting Republican U.S. Sen. John Husted as the “face of data centers in Ohio,” even as residents circulate petitions for a statewide vote to ban new data center construction outright. In Wisconsin, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong is campaigning on a pledge to “tax the rich, fund our schools and stop AI data centers.” In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is fielding criticism from voters who believe he has been too accommodating to major tech companies. One rural Democrat, Sam Burleigh, accused Shapiro of “allowing these data centers to come in and take over acres and acres of prime farmland.”
The tension may be most intense in Texas. A report by commercial real estate firm JLL projects that Texas is on track to surpass northern Virginia as the world’s largest data center market by 2030, thanks to its abundant land, energy resources, and a business-friendly regulatory climate under Republican leadership.
In rural west Texas and the panhandle, enormous data center facilities are already under construction. One near Amarillo has been promoted as the largest in the world, and some projects include plans for natural gas-powered turbines. Google, which is building four data centers in northwest Texas, recently sponsored moderated discussions with local officials and business leaders in Lubbock and Amarillo, fueling speculation about additional projects and sparking an outcry across small cities, tiny towns, and large ranches where voters lean heavily Republican.
Google argues its investments are strengthening American innovation, boosting cybersecurity, and expanding energy capacity. President Donald Trump has also made data centers a national priority as part of the effort to keep the U.S. ahead of China in the race for AI dominance.
Critics, however, say tech companies and developers are often secretive about their plans, leaving communities in the dark about what’s being built and what environmental impacts to expect. Some residents fear data centers will drive up the cost of living and spoil the wide-open landscapes that define rural Texas.
Others say construction activity and an influx of workers are already causing disruption — pushing up rents, buying up farmland, flooding roads with traffic, lighting up the night sky, and transforming parts of rural Texas into industrial corridors.
Opposition spans party lines. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, has been among the critics. Others say many more Republicans share those concerns privately but hesitate to speak out against their governor and party.
“They’re upset with Greg Abbott,” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, a former Republican activist from Spearman who writes a syndicated column focused on rural Texas issues. “Whether that translates into voting against him, I don’t know.”
Abbott has been an enthusiastic booster of major economic projects in Texas. Last November, he appeared alongside Google to announce a $40 billion investment in the state, declaring that “Texas is the epicenter of AI development.” Adding to community frustration, Texas counties lack zoning authority — the very tool that many communities elsewhere in the country are using to block or restrict data center development.
Abbott appears to have recognized that the data center issue is creating divisions within his own coalition. In recent weeks, he directed state regulators to take action to protect Texans from higher electricity costs tied to data centers, and he pledged to advance legislation next year to impose new regulations on the industry. At a campaign stop in East Texas, he said that would include eliminating a state tax break worth more than a billion dollars annually and prohibiting data centers from being built in “rural Texas neighborhoods.”
Hinojosa and other critics dismissed Abbott’s language about “rural Texas neighborhoods” as empty rhetoric — “doublespeak that makes no sense to anyone,” she said — and argued his response lacks both urgency and substance.
“Now we have this gold rush of data centers in our communities,” Hinojosa said in an interview, adding that “people want a say, and I think that’s fair.” She said that as governor, she would block permits for data centers that weren’t in the best interest of Texans or that were approved without meaningful public input.
One of the most pressing worries is water. Data centers consume enormous quantities of water, and critics fear they will worsen drought conditions for farmers and ranchers in a state where water shortages have already devastated industries like sugar cane production.
“Oh, I guarantee you, it’s on everybody’s mind,” said Giles Dalby, a cattle rancher and Republican county commissioner in west Texas. Dalby, who raises Angus and Brangus cattle on land his family has worked for 125 years, pointed to conflicts like the “water wars” between San Antonio and ranchers in recent years. He warned that as shortages and rationing worsen, data centers could end up ahead of ranchers in line for water access.
Clayton Tucker, a rancher running as the Democratic nominee for state agriculture commissioner, said data centers dominate the conversation at nearly every campaign event, regardless of whether he’s speaking to Democrats or Republicans. “This is the most cross-partisan issue I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tucker said.
Protest groups are forming across the state, including one in Lubbock led by Republicans. Two of its founders, Stephen Sanders and Hallie Bertrand, said they may not vote for Abbott, though they’re not necessarily ready to back Hinojosa either. Sanders said Abbott still has time to push through meaningful legislation and “be a hero.”
Whether enough rural voters will break from Abbott to give Hinojosa a realistic chance remains unclear. Bertrand acknowledged that many voters remain unaware of the issue entirely. “They’ll just hit that button, Republican all the way down,” she said. “But I think it’s a step towards something that we have not seen in Texas in a long time, with people on the right switching to the left. Or scooting a little closer to the middle, maybe.”
