Data centers, AI, and the 2026 elections. Ft. Paris Marx.

If you’ve heard anything at all about the midterm elections, you’ve heard at least two things: it’s going to be a ‘blue wave’ in which Democrats are poised for major electoral gains, and that everyone involved hates data centers.

We’re all used to hearing about that data center hate now, it’s almost a given; “the single most bipartisan issue in politics,” and so on, but I want to pause to underline how remarkable this is. This time last year, data centers were a niche issue in a handful of local political fights. Now they’re one of America’s most visible, universal and undeniable political battlegrounds.

To investigate how we got here, I sit down with Paris Marx; tech reporter, critic, and author of the new book Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires. Plus, I dig into three things we should be watching during the midterm elections next week.

Hyperscale by Paris MarxParis’s Disconnect NewsletterParis on Bluesky

Brian’s Bluesky

Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky

Stories Mentioned

Texas sues OpenAI, Sam Altman over product safety - POLITICO

Media — Angela Gonzales-Torres for Congress

James Talarico on X: “There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.” / X

Elon Musk’s America PAC Is Quietly Funding November’s Most Consequential Elections

SpaceX and Tesla have high election stakes as Elon Musk pours $366 million into campaigns

Ohio Senate special election | Tech Influence Watch

Leading the Future | Tech Influence Watch

Exclusive: GOP warns AI companies that data centers are politically radioactive

AI and data centers are incredibly unpopular in every poll | The Verge

The data center backlash reveals NIMBYism’s great contradiction

Texas gubernatorial election, 2026 - Ballotpedia

Data Centers | Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor

Elon Musk Is Trying To Buy Texas. It Might Earn Him ‘Retribution.’

How Billionaires Are Fighting the Prop 40 California Wealth Tax - The New York Times

https://thewatt.org/en/nota/gas-centros-datos-capacidad-eeuu/

Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land

Exclusive: 75% of Americans Now Oppose Local Data Center Development - Heatmap News

Cheyenne Won’t Take Data Center Wastewater After Meta Contractor Contaminated System | Cowboy State Daily

Why Do Data Centers Use So Much Water? Understanding the Hidden Environmental Cost | Waterless Co Inc.

Canada’s AI minister blames OpenAI for ‘failure’ after mass shooting - POLITICO

ChatGPT Gave Me Chilling Advice—as I Simulated Planning a Mass Shooting – Mother Jones

The Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools Is Much Worse Than You Thought | WIRED

Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon call for curbs on AI at ‘pro-human’ summit | US politics | The Guardian

Character.ai’s Bankruptcy Documents Show the Economics of AI Don’t Work

Scoop: Andreessen Horowitz lays off “majority” of portfolio recruiting team

Anthropic posts staggering $80.7 billion net loss in first half of 2026 as IPO approaches - Tech Startups

Investors dump data centre bonds as AI borrowers face ‘Darwin moment’

$64 billion of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local opposition

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