Multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hubs are beginning to scramble politics in the crucial swing state as voters worry about costs and local control. Data centers have become a boxy, hulking flashpoint across Georgia and the nation heading into the midterms — and the backlash is spreading fast across red and blue states. Democrats saw early success in highlighting backlash to data centers in the off-year elections, when Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia won their gubernatorial elections by wide margins with pledges to better regulate data centers and their energy consumption. In Georgia, Democrats beat two Republican incumbent state regulators in part by supporting guardrails around data center growth.\n\n— Politico, April 26, 2026