A rural conservative voter in Texas has gone viral after she told MS NOW that she and her neighbors are willing to vote for Democrats to "kill data centers" that are springing up in their community.
Data centers—vast, industrial buildings packed with servers, networking hardware, and storage systems—form the physical backbone of modern computing.
While such facilities date back to the mid-20th century, emerging alongside the first general-purpose digital computers, their construction has surged dramatically in recent years as artificial intelligence has moved from theory to daily use.
That growth has brought mounting environmental concerns into sharper focus. Over the last year, researchers and journalists have increasingly scrutinized the energy and water demands of popular generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.
According to a Forbes report, the water required to sustain just one ChatGPT conversation is comparable to the amount contained in a typical disposable plastic water bottle.
Last month, a Texas Tribune analysis found that nearly 60% of planned or under-construction data centers are located in Republican-held districts that voted for President Donald Trump, even as public opposition remains strong. A March poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans would oppose an AI data center being built in their community.
With midterm elections just months away, MS NOW spoke to one voter about how data centers could become a liability for the GOP, asking:
“You are willing at this point to forego basically every conservative issue, and let the Senate fall into the hands of Democrats if that’s what it takes to kill [AI] data centers?”
The voter replied:
“Yup. My entire community is going to break ranks."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
She told the network that the data center currently hurting her community makes so much noise that she hears it "every morning when I'm getting up to make my coffee."
She added:
"All of us sleep with fans on, TVs on, just to get to the point where we can sleep. Our property values have plummeted because of all this noise and bombardment that we have. Nobody in this area could sell a home if they wanted to."
You can see the full segment below.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
It seems MAGA has been put on notice.
It's interesting to hear there's this much pushback in Texas given how much Republicans have thrown themselves behind data center projects.
At the federal level, Trump has championed accelerated data-center construction as a matter of economic competitiveness and national security, while efforts to impose additional transparency requirements have stalled. Meanwhile, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has pushed to limit state regulation of artificial intelligence.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said he wants Texas to become the "epicenter" for the artificial intelligence industry. Abbott has promoted the state as a hub for AI development and highlighting major investments such as Google's multibillion-dollar data-center expansion.
We'll see how that pays off in November.
@HunterBiden/X; @Boilers32/X
@HunterBiden/X; @Boilers32/X
