Voters in Texas agree: They hate data centers

Some are even mad enough to vote for Democrats.

by Justine CalmaOct 28, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

Some are even mad enough to vote for Democrats.

by Justine CalmaOct 28, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC Justine Calma is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.

Ask Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe what it’s been like to see data center developers descend upon Austin and its surrounding suburbs and he can rattle off project after project facing opposition from locals.

There’s the fight in Taylor over plans to build a data center at a site that’s supposed to be a park. Temple, around 40 miles away, is another sore spot, Bledsoe says. The mayor and City Council members there face recall attempts over data center developments. And some 30 miles outside of Austin, San Marcos became the first city in all of Texas to ban data centers.

Nowhere in the world are data centers growing more explosively than in Texas. With the midterm elections looming, the data center fight “is the issue in Texas,” says Bledsoe. The state’s NAACP recently joined dozens of other groups across the political spectrum to form a coalition to stop — or at least stall — data center construction. Their grievances are just as diverse as their membership: concerns about how much water the industry consumes in a state as dry as Texas, qualms about tax subsidies, and objections to new gas plants and wind farms built to meet rising electricity demand. Together, Bledsoe estimates the coalition — named We the People Texas — represents as many as 1 million voters across the state.

If there’s one thing a broad range of voters can agree on this election season, it’s that they hate data centers and are unhappy with the status quo. A majority of Texans — 57 percent — oppose the construction of data centers, an August poll found. That included 43 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of Democrats, and 54 percent of independents.

After initially proclaiming his state the “epicenter of AI development,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is now fighting for reelection against underdog Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who is seen as having a rare shot at taking a reliably red state. The state’s high-profile Senate race is no less of a nail-biter, with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton running neck and neck against Democrat James Talarico. In each race, candidates have to win over voters who think data centers are coming for their water, land, and livelihoods. Republican and Democratic hopefuls alike are trying to distance themselves from an industry that’s taken deep root in the state — and so far, voters aren’t buying it.

“You’re talking about Democrats, libertarians, independents, Republicans, all in one fight … we have almost nothing in common in so many other ways. And yet you get us in the room with this issue, and it’s like a wall … fighting one big enemy,” says Jet Parker, who cofounded a group called Save Rural Texas that is now part of the We the People Texas coalition.

Save Rural Texas came together this year after a local county commissioners’ meeting about plans to build a new data center in the Texoma area that borders Oklahoma. Residents, including Parker, successfully delayed that project. That victory led Parker, a corporate coach and speaker, to write up a handbook for other communities trying to block data center projects, and she now spends much of her time traveling around the state to train grassroots groups.

She’s got a warning for Republicans: If they keep backing data centers, they’ll lose Texas. “You just pissed off a lot of people in rural Texas who are supposed to carry you across the [finish] line,” Parker says.

Abbott is in particularly hot water. “You brung it, so you dance with it. That’s Texas talk, you know,” Parker says. “That’s what Abbott’s done, but we’re the ones having to dance with it … we didn’t want to be in the dance at all.”

For years, however, Texas has taken among the most welcoming stances toward data centers in the country. The state passed a sales and use tax exemption for data centers in 2013 under former Gov. Rick Perry. In 2015, Abbott expanded the exemption to include hyperscale data centers, which can span millions of square feet and house tens of thousands of GPUs. As a result, qualifying data center developers don’t have to pay state taxes on equipment and electricity for up to 20 years. That essentially rolled out the red carpet for companies that need abundant electricity to power energy-hungry data centers.

Since then data centers have had a massive growth spurt in order to support new generative AI models — and that’s costing the state. The tax exemption was initially expected to cost taxpayers $14.6 million in 2014 and 2015. But in 2025, state officials estimated that the tax break would lead to $3.2 billion in lost sales tax revenue over two years.

The state’s energy woes go further than that. Electricity bills have grown by 35.4 percent on average over the past five years as demand rises and utilities build expensive new infrastructure to meet that demand. Bledsoe is concerned about air pollution for communities around new gas plants. Data center electricity demand could erase decades of air quality gains in Texas, one recent study found. Parker, meanwhile, can’t stand solar and wind farms built near farmland. Neither wants to see new transmission lines snaking through their communities.

Data centers can also put pressure on already stressed water supplies, especially in a drought-prone state like Texas. While they

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