Abbott paused data center approvals in August of an election year and said Texas needed more information first. State regulators approved the schedule this week: the report lands December 10. Election Day is November 3.
Someone has to pay to power the AI build-out. In Texas, Florida, Ohio, Georgia and New Mexico, these five Republicans have spent the last few years making sure it's you.
Abbott courted data centers and let their tax break balloon for eleven years. In August of an election year he announced a pause — and lifelong Republicans in small towns say they can see exactly what it is. His approval with rural voters has fallen 15 points, and he's now one point ahead of a Democrat.
A year ago Americans were split on AI data centers. Now 75% oppose one in their area. These eight Republicans spent that year helping the build-out along, taking the industry's money, or both. Five have spent the last few weeks repositioning. Three are still making the industry's case.
Barrett is running as a data center fighter. Since then he voted for the tax breaks that handed six companies $83 billion, voted for a ten-year ban on states regulating AI, backed a bill weakening environmental reviews, and took money from Musk, Thiel, Blackstone's CEO and the corporate PACs of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle.
A Lever investigation found Rogers holds $1.7 to $2.6 million in companies positioned to profit from the AI build-out, including a stake in a Blackstone trust that is 29 percent data centers while Blackstone helps build a $16 billion data center near Ann Arbor. In March he endorsed Trump's plan to speed up data center permitting. On August 20 he called for a one-year moratorium.
71% of Americans don't want a data center near them. Rather than answer them, these members asked the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate who's funding the opposition — while researchers who actually looked for a Chinese campaign said: 'We haven't found much.'
A leaked National Republican Senatorial Committee memo warns that data centers are an 'anchor' around Husted's campaign and begs AI companies to fix their image. Ohio's data center tax break cost the state $1.57 billion last year — eleven times the projection.
Tiffany is attacking David Crowley over data centers while taking money from the industry's registered lobbyist — and the coalition that lobbyist works for fought the exact NDA ban and tax change Tiffany now says he supports.
