The US midterm elections on 3 November 2026 turned into a vote on the AI infrastructure boom. Within days, the incoming Democratic majorities in Congress set out their plans for AI legislation.
Data centres on the ballot
CNBC, citing Ballotpedia, reports that 41 local ballot measures on data centres were put to voters in 10 states. Voters sided against data centres in all of them except one, in Harwood, North Dakota. Ohio alone had 21 measures. In a CNBC voter poll, 56% of voters said data centres were a crucial or major factor in how they voted.
The politics at state level shifted too. Ohio's governor-elect, Democrat Amy Acton, supports a "conditional moratorium" on data centres. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated Governor Greg Abbott after blaming him for the rapid spread of data centres. Ohio is home to OpenAI's planned 8-gigawatt PORTS-Pike campus, which CNBC says could cost more than $500 billion in total.
The Democrats' legislative plans
On 6 November Reuters reported that Democrats plan a "flood" of AI bills when they take control of Congress in January. They include:
- protecting consumers from higher electricity costs linked to data centres, which Senator Chuck Schumer named as a priority;
- independent testing of advanced AI models against safety standards, which Representative Lori Trahan intends to pursue;
- making clear when AI companies can be held liable for harm caused by their systems.
Democrats also plan to use their committee powers to compel testimony from AI executives. In October, Democratic committee leaders in the House had already asked OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google and SpaceX to describe their security practices and any cases of their AI tools acting in ways their designers did not intend.
Any bill would face a likely veto from President Trump, who has repeatedly rejected mandatory AI rules. Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds majority in both chambers. Raymond James's Ed Mills told Reuters that Democrats could also attach AI provisions to bills that must pass every year.
Why it matters financially
Reuters reported that technology shares sold off sharply on 5 November, partly on concern that the new Congress will slow AI development. According to CNBC, crypto, AI and online gambling interests spent more than $377 million on the 2026 midterms, and the hyperscalers are each spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on AI infrastructure. Local restrictions, energy-cost rules and new liability laws could all raise the cost of that build-out and slow it down.