Some midterm races come down to 'people who hate data centers' versus 'people who hate them even more.'
If there's one issue that seems to activate all kinds of voters in 2026, it's data centers. The rapid buildout of these massive server storage facilities — and the infrastructure construction and expenses that come with them — has sparked local opposition in communities across the country and become a major issue in many congressional and gubernatorial campaigns
At the same time, tech money has been pouring into many of these races. Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, has already spent $45 million in a year. And Public First Action, an Anthropic-backed group that says it supports AI safeguards, says it's raised $80 million . Both have funded Democratic and Republican-aligned groups. Other super PACs see an opportunity to push for stricter AI policies , like the recently created Tomorrow Together, which launched $4 million in ads for battleground House races, with messages about data center development and AI safety
