(…) Persily calls data centers the “physical manifestation of AI,” a place where anxieties about jobs, geopolitics, energy or the technology itself suddenly acquire a target: land, transmission lines, water use, tax breaks and an electricity bill.
Brent Buchanan, founder and CEO of the Republican polling firm Cygnal, said data centers began surfacing unprompted in his focus groups toward the end of 2025. By the later primaries, candidates were attacking opponents over their records on data centers and the tax incentives that came with them.
“Nobody’s explaining why we need more of them,” Buchanan said. The fight, he argued, has become a stand-in for something larger: “It’s a proxy issue of, ‘Is this person in the pocket of special interest or is this person for people like me?’”
The record is now moving in real time. On September 16, the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, introduced by Representative Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican, by a vote of 417 to 3. The bill requires technology companies to pay for new energy infrastructure serving data centers rather than passing those costs on to other customers. Several Republicans in competitive races signed on as cosponsors in the weeks before the vote. The scorecard rates the measure a 2, Lean Skeptic, and that single vote moved a number of House Republicans’ scores.
Democrats voted for it too—and argued it was not enough. Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, called the bill “only the beginning.” Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said it “falls short.” As of press time, there have been no signs of advancing to a Senate vote since the House passage. (…)