Georgia’s battleground races give a first look at a brewing political storm

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Multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hubs are beginning to scramble politics in the crucial swing state as voters worry about costs and local control.

Joe Reed, a resident of Jackson, Georgia, shows maps of proposed factories and data centers at his home on April 6, 2026. | Photos by David Walter Banks for POLITICO

FORSYTH, Georgia — A multibillion-dollar data center boom is provoking a bipartisan backlash in one of the nation’s most pivotal political battlegrounds.

Tax breaks, a stable power grid and vast tracts of undeveloped land have made Georgia a mecca for the artificial intelligence industry, with sprawling data center campuses under review or in development across rural acres and the Atlanta suburbs alike.