How AI and data centers are dominating New Yorks key midterm races

New York GOP candidates are blazing forward with a pro-tech, pro-business message in the state’s marquee November races while Democrats try to weaponize a surge in public outrage against data centers and AI.Dem Gov.Kathy Hochul, who is clamoring to hold onto her 10-point lead in her reelection bid against Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, recently fired a major salvo in the anti-data-center war by implementing a one-year statewide moratorium on new sites in the Empire State, even as demand for the facilities soars with the takeoff of AI.“This is a reaction to the anxiety we’re hearing around this,” Hochul recently claimed.“The bottom line is progress shouldn’t arrive with a higher utility bill, deleted water supply or noise pollution.

So we have no choice but to address these challenges created by these massive facilities,” she said.High-profile congressional Democrats such as Cait Conley, who is trying to knock out GOP Hudson Valley incumbent Rep.Mike Lawler, are honing in on the issue.

too.“Right now, where we’re just letting corporations literally pass costs off to our communities and extort benefit, that’s not the right answer,” she said at a forum hosted by the Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce last month.“And as we’ve learned with social-media companies, they’re not going to do the right thing themselves,” said Conley, calling for more control over data center development when asked about the issue.A Siena University poll released last month shows only 29% of likely New York voters have a favorable opinion of AI compared with 52% unfavorable.Younger voters between ages 18 and 35 are decidedly against the tech, with only 23% telling Siena they view it favorably, compared with a massive 71% who consider it unfavorable.But Blakeman, railing against Hochul’s moratorium, has said such opposition is just another example of Democrats’ anti-business sentiments.“To bury your head in the sand, with the fastest gro...