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The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats overnight, and Democrats also took the House. NBC News counts seven flipped Republican Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Mississippi and Alaska were still uncalled this morning.
The governors' races matter more to the buildout than Congress does. Gina Hinojosa, who ran on a data center , an end to the industry's tax breaks and developers paying their full electricity costs, beat three-term Texas Governor Greg Abbott, with 53% of the vote and 80% of counties reporting. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for a Texas Senate seat. In Ohio, Amy Acton, who backs moratoriums, beat Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sherrod Brown beat Jon Husted after attacking his data center record. Kathy Hochul kept New York after her opponent vowed to end her statewide pause on new hyperscale sites.
In NBC's , 56% of voters said AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress. Commentators on the poll put the "crucial" share alone at 23%, and they split on whether that is high or low. Bloomberg counts about half of US AI data center proposals as now exposed to tougher scrutiny from new governors. Jefferies puts 13.3 of announced Texas projects at risk, and Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research says roughly 13.
The limits on that risk are real. Republicans still control the Texas Legislature, and Abbott had already frozen new grid approvals on August 3rd and environmental permits on September 21st, pending an audit. Hinojosa inherits a pause before she issues one. Not every race went one way: in Florida, Byron Donalds won the governorship with backing from the pro-AI Leading the Future.
Democrats sweep the midterms after 56% of voters call AI and data centers a major factor
The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats overnight, and Democrats also took the House. NBC News counts seven flipped Republican Senate seats: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Mississippi and Alaska were still uncalled this morning.
The governors' races matter more to the buildout than Congress does. Gina Hinojosa, who ran on a data center moratorium, an end to the industry's tax breaks and developers paying their full electricity costs, beat three-term Texas Governor Greg Abbott, with 53% of the vote and 80% of counties reporting. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for a Texas Senate seat. In Ohio, Amy Acton, who backs moratoriums, beat Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sherrod Brown beat Jon Husted after attacking his data center record. Kathy Hochul kept New York after her opponent vowed to end her statewide pause on new hyperscale sites.
In NBC's exit poll, 56% of voters said AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress. Commentators on the poll put the "crucial" share alone at 23%, and they split on whether that is high or low. Bloomberg counts about half of US AI data center proposals as now exposed to tougher scrutiny from new governors. Jefferies puts 13.3 gigawatts of announced Texas projects at risk, and Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research says roughly 13.
The limits on that risk are real. Republicans still control the Texas Legislature, and Abbott had already frozen new grid approvals on August 3rd and environmental permits on September 21st, pending an audit. Hinojosa inherits a pause before she issues one. Not every race went one way: in Florida, Byron Donalds won the governorship with backing from the pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future. SourcesABBBC
Sources
- AGovernor Abbott directs TCEQ to halt data center permits (Texas Governor's Office)gov.texas.gov
- BMusk's record election bet backfired (CNBC)cnbc.com
- B33 data centre curbs pass as US midterms turn the AI buildout into a political liability (Capacity)capacityglobal.com
- BTexas flips blue, putting data center boom on notice (Bisnow)bisnow.com
- CThere is one fight: American voters reject tech oligarchy (404 Media, opinion)404media.co
This story ran in the Morning Brief of November 4th 2026.