US midterms: Only one town out of dozens in US voted in favour of data centres

WASHINGTON – Voters in dozens of towns across the US sent a clear message against data centres in the Nov 3 elections – with one notable exception.In Harwood, North Dakota, residents blocked a measure aimed at slowing industrial developments like data centres. About three-fourths of the town’s voters – around 430 in total – went against the proposal. The ballot initiative was in response to a plan for Applied Digital to build a large data centre in town with Oracle as an ultimate customer. The project is scheduled to reach full capacity in 2027 with potential to expand further on a 364ha campus. Construction began less than a month after residents in the town of roughly 800 found out about the project in September 2025, said Michael Swartz, who led efforts to get the proposal added to the ballot.His group, known as Voices of Harwood, gathered 91 signatures in three days, more than twice the 40 needed to qualify. Still, their initial enthusiasm failed to manifest at the polls on Nov 3, after the town’s mayor and local chamber of commerce urged voters to reject the measure. If the initiative had passed, it could have prompted Applied Digital to seek to de-annex its project from Harwood, potentially imperiling the city’s tax revenue, Councilman Chris Higgins said in an interview.“If this project was going to happen, we want to make sure the city benefits,” he said, adding that the proposal could have hurt other businesses trying to expand in the town.Given the level of official opposition, Swartz is not surprised the measure failed. With the language the town used on the ballot to describe his measure, “even I would’ve voted no,” he said.“You’ve got all those things working against you, but as a grassroots movement we don’t have the capital,” he said, noting that he used his own money for organising and advertising the initiative. The results in Harwood were an outlier in a US election where voter frustration with data centres shaped the outcomes of key contests across the country. There were at least 45 ballot measures – largely at the municipal level – focused on whether to allow data centre development, according to an analysis by Redbud Consulting.Nearly all of the measures had either passed or were poised to win approval as of Nov 4, nearly a day after polls closed.Data centre developers are now grappling with a worst-case scenario of possible new restrictions on their business after the Nov 3 vote. In addition to the local measures, Democrats won gubernatorial races in several states including Texas, Georgia and Ohio after campaigning for tougher oversight of tech infrastructure.Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic governor-elect in Texas, has called for an immediate moratorium on data centre projects until more thorough regulation is developed. Backlash at the ballot box to data centres reflected how AI has emerged as a hot-button political issue, with voters concerned that the facilities drive up local utility bills and are often constructed with little transparency. A Quinnipiac University poll in September found that 72% of voters would oppose a new data centre in their community.In Harwood, located outside Fargo along the Minnesota border, the ballot initiative pushed by Swartz turned into a year-long tit-for-tat battle between supporters and opponents of the project. Mayor Blake Hankey had opposed the measure, saying it would create barriers to development and defending the data centre as a source of tax revenue, according to local outlet InForum. The area’s chamber of commerce advised residents to vote against the initiative “to keep Harwood open for business,” warning of higher taxes and more bureaucracy at city hall if it passed.Swartz said that for every mailer sent by Voices of Harwood, the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce sent one too.Applied Digital had initially eyed Fargo for its campus but abruptly shifted to the much smaller town of Harwood after balking at Fargo’s building and franchise fees, then-Mayor Tim Mahoney told local news outlet KVRR.Across the country, activists are working to get special elections for data centre restrictions on ballots following the midterms, but when it comes to trying again in Harwood, Swartz said, “I don’t know how much more in the tank I have.” BLOOMBERG