Ahead of the midterm elections, Democratic Senate candidates are repeatedly pressing opponents on AI data center policy, using it as a proxy for voter concerns about the economy and local impacts. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown calls Republican Sen. Jon Husted "the face of data centers" and accuses him of giving away two and a half billion dollars in tax breaks to tech firms, while James Talarico accuses Ken Paxton of "selling off Texas" to data center companies. A Pew survey conducted in July and August found 50 percent of U.S. adults think data centers are "mostly bad" for home energy costs, up from 38 percent in January. Dan Cassino of Fairleigh Dickinson University argues voters blame data centers for higher electricity bills, making it a vulnerability for Republicans.
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