Data Centers Turn Into Gubernatorial Flashpoints Across Key States

Statewide races are increasingly centered on data-center development, which voters associate with rising electricity costs, water-use concerns and the rapid expansion of artificial-intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Candidates in Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia and other states are reshaping their platforms to address the backlash, making data-center policy a decisive issue in the 2024 elections.

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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) introduced the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) initiative in May, requiring developers to fund their own power generation, disclose plans to municipalities and negotiate community-benefit agreements that guarantee jobs and environmental safeguards. The measure passed the state House and awaits Senate approval. The framework follows Amazon’s pledge to invest at least $20 billion in cloud-computing and AI campuses across the Commonwealth.

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In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott (R) has moved from championing the state as the “epicenter of AI development” to urging regulators to block new rural data-center projects, proposing the repeal of sales-tax exemptions and demanding water-efficient technologies. The state’s data-center tax exemption could cost more than $3 billion by 2028.

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Georgia’s gubernatorial contest pits former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) against billionaire health-care executive Rick Jackson (R). Bottoms calls for a temporary halt to new construction, while Jackson, who is invested in a data-center project, argues for community input but supports continued development.

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Shapiro’s campaign spokesperson Manuel Bonder said the GRID framework was crafted with “community, labor and environmental leaders” to set “strict standards” and ensure projects “benefit our communities and don’t impose costs on Pennsylvanians.”

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Texas Republican Greg Abbott told local reporters he is “pushing back against these AI data centers that are trying to build in our neighborhoods.”

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Republican challenger Stacy Garrity, Pennsylvania Treasurer, accused Shapiro of “absolutely no leadership” and of providing “virtually no communication to local communities” after previously championing data-center growth.

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Democratic Texas candidate Gina Hinojosa charged that Abbott’s tax incentives have created “the most generous tax dollar giveaway to data centers in the country so Texans would foot the bill.”

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Georgia campaign communications director TaNisha Cameron warned that “Georgia’s status quo of unchecked data center construction without a plan is not acceptable.”

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• “Could you invent an easier political target if you tried?” — Sam Silverman, founder, Silverman Strategy Group

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• “I’m generally a techo-optimist, and I’d advise anyone actively campaigning as pro-data center in their community that it’s electoral malpractice,” — Sam Silverman

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• “Naturally, it’s an election year, and election year politics … are at play here with those questions of affordability and unfortunately, data centers end up being … a sort of poster child if you will,” — Data-center industry expert (anonymous)

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• “People — rightly or wrongly — believe that data centers are there for AI, and that’s what’s driving up the power bill,” — Dan Cassino, executive director, Fairleigh Dickinson University poll

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