Data centres became a US midterm villain: $173M in campaign ads, and trackers found almost none arguing in their favour
What's being reported? As the US votes in the 2026 midterms on 3 November, the AI infrastructure boom has turned into a campaign theme. Campaigns and outside groups have spent $173 million on ads about data centres in this year's general election, almost all of them negative, according to ad tracker AdImpact data reported by Axios. Democrats accounted for about $140 million, Republicans $28 million and independents $5 million. Asked for ads making an overtly positive case for data centres, AdImpact said it could not identify any.
Where the money went. About $95 million aired in four Rust Belt states: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (Axios). In Ohio's Senate race, the campaigns and outside groups had spent more than $8.3 million by mid-October on ads tying the other candidate to the state's data centre boom (AdImpact via Bisnow). Bisnow reported that data centres climbed from 43rd to 17th of 73 ad topics tracked by AdImpact between late August and early October.
Social ads point the same way. A Pew Research Center analysis of 20,751 Facebook and Instagram political ads mentioning data centres found the tone flipped this year: in January 42% were supportive and 31% critical; in October so far 57% were critical and 3% supportive. Critical ads most often cite the corporations behind the projects; supportive ones mostly talk about jobs. Pew used an AI model to classify each ad's stance.
The counter-view. Not everyone reads this as a referendum on AI. Infrastructure for America, using AdImpact and Tunnl data on 1.42 million TV spots in ten governor and Senate races in five data centre states, found data centres mentioned in only 5% of ads, behind corruption attacks and affordability. The Blue Horizon Project argues most Democratic data centre ads attack tax breaks and power bills rather than the facilities themselves, with under $2.5 million backing a construction pause or ban.
Why it matters for tech: Hyperscalers plan to spend hundreds of billions on AI data centres, and grid access, local permits and tax incentives are set by the officials elected this week. Whichever reading is right, the industry's local licence to build is now being argued over on TV.
