Pause-Backing Candidates Eye 15 of 36 US Governor Races

Up to 15 of 36 US governors' races on Tuesday could go to candidates backing a pause on new data centers, according to an analysis in The Information by Shane Burke, flagged on Techmeme. The listed states include Texas, Ohio, Michigan, and New York.

"As data centers have gone from obscurity to the top of voters' minds, midterm candidates are taking a stance on the issue," the piece reports.

The pattern crosses party lines. In Michigan, both Democratic nominee Jocelyn Benson and Republican nominee John James back a moratorium, according to WDIV. Benson has pitched a one-year pause until guardrails are set. James has proposed a five-part halt until there is "a plan to protect the communities."

In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton has tied her conditional moratorium to a demand that data centers pay all utility costs and use union labor. "Ohio is open for business, but we are not up for sale," she has said. Her Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy has pledged to halt new data center approvals by executive order until legislators pass his "Ohioans-First" law, the Daily Caller reports.

In Florida, Democratic nominee David Jolly says he would order a halt to new hyperscale data centers on day one. In Texas, Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa called Governor Abbott's temporary pause "a scam" and has demanded an immediate halt. In Georgia, Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms wants construction stopped. Candidates in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin have taken similar positions, per Newsweek.

New York remains the only state so far to have enacted a statewide moratorium, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. It lands in a dense news cycle for the beat: our tracker has logged 265 regulation stories in the last 90 days.