Texas spent a decade telling data centre developers they were welcome. Now its Republicans are competing over who can regulate them most aggressively, a shift that Reuters reports has put Big Tech on notice in the state that hosts more data centres than any other.
The change is showing up on the ballot. Data centres have become a major issue in the races for governor and a US Senate seat, in a state where the industry was until recently seen primarily as an economic development success rather than a political problem.
Ken Paxton, the attorney general running for Senate, published a four-point Texas First Data Center Plan last month. It calls for a federal DATA Act, closed-loop water systems, a ban on Chinese technology inside data centres and criminal liability for AI safety violations.
His Democratic opponent has arrived at a similar position. James Talarico’s Hold Data Centers Accountable Plan would end the state sales tax incentives that helped attract the industry, establish federal minimum standards, give local communities more control over projects and require closed-loop water systems.
The overlap is revealing. Candidates from opposite parties have independently landed on the same water policy, which is usually a sign that an issue has stopped being about ideology and started being about what people see on their utility bills.
