Anxiety grows over emerging election issue, but GOP says Washington isn't the answer

Public perception is everything heading into a crucial midterm election fight, and voters across the political spectrum have laid down the gauntlet over their view of data centers this cycle.Republicans running for power in the Senate are keenly aware that their voters aren’t happy about data centers, according to recent polling.While they believe that the construction of the windowless, hulking behemoths should be slowed or halted, they don’t want the federal government to play an outsized role."The data center companies haven't done a very good job of explaining why they should be allowed to develop in communities," Sen.

Jon Husted, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas.HAWLEY TAKES AIM AT 'CORPORATE WELFARE' AFTER GOP-BACKED TAX BREAK BOOSTED CONTROVERSIAL INDUSTRYAn Amazon Web Services data center in Stone Ridge, Va., on July 28, 2024.(Nathan Howard/Getty Images)"But the bottom line is, that should be a local decision, not a federal decision," he continued.

"I don't want the federal government telling you that you must have a data center or that you can't have a data center.That's a local decision.

Some people will say yes, some people will no."A Gallup Poll published in May found that 70% of Americans don’t want new data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) constructed in their towns and cities.Many of their concerns are about the impact that a new data center could have on their bills, be it through spikes in water or electricity costs.Husted is one of a handful of vulnerable Republicans running in this cycle, and he, like others, is hearing about data centers and their impact routinely on the campaign trail.He attempted to pass a bill quickly on the Senate floor last week that would have tried to tackle the latter issue of booming electricity costs by preventing AI and tech companies from placing the burden of power grid infrastructure upgrades on taxpayers, but was blocked by Sen.

Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., des...