"From high-profile Senate races to local rezoning initiatives, data centers and their supporters did miserably on the ballot in the 2026 midterms."
"It was a bad night for data centers. In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown, who has aired ads for months calling his opponent “the face of data centers in Ohio,” cruised to victory to flip a Senate seat. Democrat Chris Pappas, who when seated will be the nation’s first openly gay male senator, mentioned his opposition to data centers in his victory speech and drew massive boos from his crowd in New Hampshire—even though the state has no large-scale data centers under construction.
Elsewhere, two separate Republicans named Derek and Derrick, whose Democratic opponents labeled them “Data Center Derek” and “DC Derrick,” suffered losses in House races in Ohio and Wisconsin, respectively.
As part of last night’s shocking blue tsunami, voters selected candidates with tough policies on data centers at all levels of government in a clear rebuke to the industry’s buildout in states across the country. Almost a quarter of all voters told NBC News that data centers were “crucial” to their vote, while nearly two-thirds said it was either a major or minor factor."
Vittoria Elliott and Molly Taft report for WIRED Novembber 4, 2026.
