Politics

Democrats Look To Use Data Centers As Political Football In Midterm Dogfight

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Democrats aim to direct growing anti-data center sentiment towards Republicans as the November midterm elections draw near.

Democrats hope to seize anti-data center sentiment to attack Republicans who voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), President Donald Trump’s signature legislation this Congress. The legislation expanded the Opportunity Zone program, which encourages more investment in economically distressed areas.

Opportunity Zones were first established by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and data centers have become a growing part of those Opportunity Zones. Polling shows Americans overwhelmingly reject data center construction in their neighborhoods.

Seventy-one percent of Americans either strongly or somewhat oppose local construction of data centers, a May Gallup poll found. Seventy-five percent of Americans either strongly or somewhat disapprove of data centers near their homes, while only 15% strongly or somewhat approve of them, according to an August Heatmap poll.

Democrats hope to tie Americans’ dislike of data centers to Republican policy that may push for the advancement of these technology warehouses in their neighborhoods.

However, this means that data centers might be one of the beneficiaries of this expanded provision in the OBBBA, which Democrats hope to take advantage of so close to the November midterm elections.

“Every single House Republican but one or two voted to unleash data centers on the American people in an unfettered fashion,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during a press conference on Monday, per Politico.

“A year ago, Republicans were bragging about giving tax breaks to Big Tech in order to build data centers. With November on the horizon, some House Republicans are acting as if they did not turbocharge the data center buildout,” Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern, said on Tuesday on the House floor.

Republicans have appeared to brush off these attacks, saying Opportunity Zones were designed for much more than data centers.

“Opportunity Zones control, like, everything — from child daycare centers to manufacturers. Can data centers be used in them? Yes. But so can everything else,” House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, told the outlet.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chair, first conceived of Opportunity Zones as a means to invest in lower-economic activity areas. Opportunity Zones offer capital gains offsets to those who invest in one or more Opportunity Zones.

Those close to Scott believe that Opportunity Zones serve as a key way to help revitalize areas that need it most.

“Opportunity Zones are the most successful anti-poverty program in modern history – creating jobs, alleviating poverty, and unlocking opportunity. Democrats are more interested in politics than actually helping people,” a source familiar with Scott’s thinking told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Democrats will use any issue to help empower themselves to victory. They don’t have to abide by truth,” the Missouri Republican added. “They’ll say whatever they can and they’ll mislead whatever they can. So anything Hakeem Jeffries says — if it’s coming out of his mouth, it’s probably not true.”

One Ways and Means press release cited a Bloomberg Tax report, which noted that rural Opportunity Zones may benefit from increased data center investment.

The Big Beautiful Bill “may significantly lower barriers” for large-scale projects in rural areas which include “most notably hyperscale data centers.”

The economic case for building data centers in designated rural opportunity zones becomes far more compelling,” the Bloomberg Tax report stated.

Data centers have flocked to Opportunity Zones, according to one grassroots organization.

Fourteen percent of all data centers have been constructed in Opportunity Zones, and the figure rises to 17.3% when accounting for all permitted and under-construction buildings to power AI models, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), wrote in August.

“You’re seeing an increasing trend of [opportunity zones] being utilized to develop data centers,” Simon Wang, the NCRC’s economic mobility specialist, told Politico.

One battleground Republican said that Democrats need to figure out if they are just taking advantage of the anti-data center frenzy.

“Is Hakeem opposed to the data centers? Does he not think the data centers, at some point, have to be developed? Is that what he’s trying to imply, or is he just trying to make a political issue out of something that probably needs to be addressed?” California Republican Rep. David Valadao told Politico.

Data centers have become a problem for Republicans in one key Senate Race they aim to keep.

Former Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has continued to attack Ohio Republican Sen. John Husted over his support for data centers.

“Data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck. If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one,” stated an NRSC memo released in August.

Trump has sought to reassure Americans about the potential economic impact of data centers.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in late August. “The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!”

Democrats such as New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quickly attacked the president over his pro-data center message.

“I mean, how about we put one in Mar-a-Lago? I love that. Let’s put a data center up in Mar-a-Lago, and we’ll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that,” she told a reporter in response the president’s post.

“For Republicans to ignore voter concerns just a few months before the November election sure makes it easier for Democrats. All they have to do is put up a mild fight against data centers, and the masses, exhausted by the condescension, will provide the blue wave they want,” Mary Rooke, a columnist for the Daily Caller, wrote.