In the US midterm elections, Democrats took governorships from Republicans in Texas, Ohio and Georgia, and according to the AP, all three winners campaigned on halting or curbing construction of the data centers that power AI. In Texas, according to unofficial results, Gina Hinojosa beat incumbent governor Greg Abbott 57% to 41%, after promising a moratorium on new data center construction, stricter rules on water and power use and an end to tax breaks for the industry.
In Ohio, Amy Acton backs a conditional moratorium: new data centers would have to pay the full cost of their utility infrastructure, use union labor and be built on old industrial sites rather than farmland. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms wants a statewide pause until the effects on power bills, water supplies and communities are studied.
The backdrop is the wallet. According to the AP, US electricity prices are up about 10% since early 2024, and Goldman Sachs analysts expect data center demand to keep pushing them up faster than inflation. Voters do not need to know what a GPU is to connect the giant building going up near town with the bill that arrived at home.
Why does it matter? Because Texas and Georgia are among the states that drew the largest AI infrastructure investments, thanks to cheap land, available power and friendly regulation. A governor cannot cancel already-approved projects overnight, and some of the costs weighing on families are set in Washington. But according to the AP, governors have real tools: halting new projects, choosing who regulates utilities and ending tax breaks. In Ohio, for example, the governor appoints the utility regulators, possibly a more important lever than any moratorium.
Israel's tech industry has a direct stake in this. Much of Israeli high-tech, from chip companies to Nvidia's development in Israel, rests on the assumption that US data center construction will continue at its current pace. That assumption has not collapsed yet, and Google, for example, is simply moving to Wyoming. But when opposition to data centers becomes an election-winning issue, construction will be slower, costlier and full of delays, and that is a risk investors are not yet really pricing in.
