Data center push by Democratic leaders risks midterm backlash from their own voters

New York governor orders one-year pause on large datacenter construction

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order Tuesday mandating a one-year statewide pause on large datacenter construction, the first such action by a U.S. state, according to the Guardian. The move comes as Democratic leaders across the country face growing backlash from their own voters over support for AI infrastructure projects.

Polling shows a significant partisan gap on datacenter support. An Ipsos national poll found that Democratic voters oppose datacenters by a margin of 17 percentage points compared to Republican voters. Only 9% of Democrats polled said they supported a datacenter in their own community, compared with 21% of Republicans. A separate survey of 600 likely general election voters in Michigan, published in May, found that an estimated 64% of Democrats opposed having a datacenter within 25 miles of their home, compared to 51.5% of Republicans.

Michigan has emerged as a focal point of the tension. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk on June 1 at a groundbreaking for a $16 billion datacenter complex in Saline Township, a rural area west of Ann Arbor. The project is being developed by OpenAI and Oracle through the real estate firm Related Companies.

The appearance drew fierce backlash from Democratic voters. Sarah Brabbs, a lifelong Democratic voter who lives six miles from the Saline Township site, said she used to be a supporter of Whitmer. “I have her book; I appreciated her stewardship and guidance during the pandemic,” Brabbs said. After seeing the governor alongside the AI executives, she said: “I felt just rage and sadness. For like a month it made me sick, just thinking about it. I’m extremely angry watching her essentially throw us under the bus, casually.”

Brabbs also criticized the companies behind the project. “I fucking hate it. I think [Oracle and OpenAI] really took advantage of this particular area with their big promises,” she said. “There is not anything good that is happening for the township at all.”

Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called Whitmer’s position “disgusting.”

The electoral stakes are high. Trump won Michigan by 1.4 percentage points in 2024, and Democrats are contesting several House seats in November. The governor’s office is open because Whitmer is term-limited. Jocelyn Benson, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, is married to Ryan Friedrichs of Related Companies, the firm behind the Saline Township datacenter.

Abdul El-Sayed, one of the top Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, has called for part-public ownership of datacenters. El-Sayed is leading AIPAC-backed Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary, scheduled for August 4, in many polls.

In Wisconsin, where Trump won by less than 1% in 2024, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in September that he and other Wisconsinites were “grateful” for Microsoft’s datacenter complex coming to Racine County, calling the facility in Mount Pleasant a “modern marvel.” Local Democrats see it differently. “The tide has really turned over the last couple of years,” said Kelly Gallaher, chair of the Racine County Democratic Party, who lives about two miles from the Mount Pleasant complex. “Right here, in southeast Wisconsin, we are so cynical and so skeptical of these kinds of projects. Our candidates have been very outspoken about the need for a moratorium on datacenters.”

The Mount Pleasant site, bought by Microsoft in 2023, was formerly the location of a failed $10 billion Foxconn project announced by the first Trump administration in 2017. The village of Mount Pleasant borrowed close to $1 billion to part-fund that project before it was abandoned, leaving village leaders largely receptive when Microsoft later approached about investing in the same location.

Last month, Microsoft announced the completion of Fairwater, which it claims is the world’s “most powerful supercomputer,” and the first of three datacenters planned for Racine County. The second is expected to open in 2028. The facilities will collectively use up to 8.4 million gallons of water annually, provided by the city of Racine, which draws its supply from Lake Michigan.

“I think that the usage of incentives for these giant corporations have gotten completely out of control,” Gallaher said. “People are finally getting wise to it.”