Most of the national focus in Texas has been on the Senate race between Democratic state legislator James Talarico and Donald Trump-endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton. Polling largely shows Talarico either leading or in a dead heat with Paxton. But perhaps the bigger surprise in the Lone Star state has been the governor’s race between incumbent Republican Gov.
Greg Abbott and state legislator Gina Hinojosa. And Hinojosa has zeroed in on two aspects that are aggravating voters of all stripes: AI data centers and Flock cameras. There are no protections.” A former attorney general and a prolific fundraiser, Abbott has always won by significant margins.
That appears to be changing this year. The most recent poll from the University of Texas-Austin and the Texas Politics Project showed a five-point gap between Hinojosa and Abbott, who is running for a fourth term. Data centers have become a surprising flashpoint in the massive Lone Star State.
In the same UT/TPPP poll, 57 percent of Texas voters either strongly or somewhat oppose construction of data centers in their community, with 43 percent of Republicans saying they oppose construction and 45 percent saying they support construction. Among independents, that number jumps to 54 percent. Many voters and local residents, including in Republican areas, have pushed back against data centers because they fear their high consumption of electricity could raise consumer utility bills and compromise water safety.
Hinojosa faulted Abbott for the quick construction. But in recent months, data centers have faced a Texas backlash. Hinojosa said she spoke with people in rural communities about data centers before coming up with her stance on the issue, which is to place a moratorium on new data centers so the legislature can write regulations for them.
She said she met wit residents in an area with a data center and asked what they wanted. It'd be nice if we had a traffic light,’” Hinojosa said. But even that has been out of reach for Texans.” Abbott has responded in kind, signing an executive order in August requiring the state’s public utility commission and Electric Reliability Council of Texas to conduct an audit on the centers, pausing construction in the mean time.
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