Data centers become midterm election issue

Newsreel, a media company founded by Jack Brewster, hosted an event focused on the state of attention and the upcoming election. The gathering aimed to encourage attendees to put their phones away and discuss the election five days out. Participants included Kenneth Schlenker, co-founder of Opal, and Aryan Ranjan, who built campaign management software Baraza. The event highlighted how data centers have become a central issue for regular voters.

A report from Data Center Watch indicated that almost $200 billion in data center projects were delayed, stalled, or blocked in the first half of 2026 due to political and community opposition. States including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, New York, and Virginia are considering more guardrails and transparency around data centers' rapid development. In Virginia, hundreds of new data centers are planned, a state nicknamed the 'data center capital of the world.'

During a panel, Maia Woluchem and Hilary Flint discussed data centers. When asked who is pro-AI data center, the crowd booed immediately. Hilary Flint stated that people protest because they value their lives a little bit more than a temporary check. NewsNation host Batya Ungar-Sargon noted that some labor unions support data centers because of the jobs they promise. Political strategist Morris Katz stated that data center proponents are the same people who have taken so many union jobs away. Jack Brewster stated that AI has become an election issue for regular voters and that in Brooklyn, the concern is more about who gets rich from it rather than feeling replaced.