Lifelong Republican cattle ranchers in Georgia ditched their party for the first time over skyrocketing electric bills and a proposed data center next to their property. Two Democrats won massive upsets for utility board seats in some of the reddest counties after voters got fed up with rate hikes and AI infrastructure projects eating up resources.
The wins are becoming a playbook for Democrats nationwide heading into the midterms. Candidates in Virginia and New Jersey ran on lowering energy costs and making data centers pay their fair share, and local opposition killed Amazon and Google facilities in Arizona and Indiana. One advocacy group spent millions on billboards and texts connecting utility rate increases to the Republican-controlled commission that kept approving them.
Even Trump supporters are getting pissed about data centers since wells are getting damaged and municipal water costs are climbing. Georgia has like 78 data centers either built or planned near Atlanta, and the utility commission's staff warned monthly bills could jump another twenty bucks if they approve all the new power capacity for AI companies.
The wins are becoming a playbook for Democrats nationwide heading into the midterms. Candidates in Virginia and New Jersey ran on lowering energy costs and making data centers pay their fair share, and local opposition killed Amazon and Google facilities in Arizona and Indiana. One advocacy group spent millions on billboards and texts connecting utility rate increases to the Republican-controlled commission that kept approving them.
Even Trump supporters are getting pissed about data centers since wells are getting damaged and municipal water costs are climbing. Georgia has like 78 data centers either built or planned near Atlanta, and the utility commission's staff warned monthly bills could jump another twenty bucks if they approve all the new power capacity for AI companies.
