U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Opposition to data centers is so widespread that some GOP lawmakers — especially those seeking reelection in competitive swing states and swing districts — are joining Democrats in vigorously campaigning against them. But according to Politico, Democrats are hoping that a hidden provision in the Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 will make data centers even more of a political liability for Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms.
Politico reporters Kelsey Brugger and Brian Faler explain, "Voters are in an uproar over data centers — and Democrats are trying to direct anger toward Republicans by pointing to a tax provision buried in the GOP's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' Of the myriad talking points on this issue that Democrats are preparing (to) deploy heading into the midterms, they this week began alluding to 'opportunity zones' — an initiative designed to boost growth in areas deemed underdeveloped and which, at one point, Republicans had touted as a way to spur the construction of data centers."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), who is hoping to become speaker if his party flips the U.S. House of Representatives in November, used that data centers/Big, Beautiful Bill talking point when, during a news conference on August 31, he told reporters, "Every single House Republican but one or two voted to unleash data centers on the American people in an unfettered fashion." And the following day on the House floor, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) told fellow lawmakers, "A year ago, Republicans were bragging about giving tax breaks to Big Tech in order to build data centers. With November on the horizon, some House Republicans are acting as if they did not turbocharge the data center buildout."
But House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) is pushing back against the talking point, telling Politico, "Huge stretch. Opportunity zones control, like, everything — from child daycare centers to manufacturers. Can data centers be used in them? Yes. But so can everything else."
Brugger and Faler note that Democrats' new "messaging tactic" linking data centers to a "yes" vote on the Big, Beautiful Bill Act "arrives as Republicans are already struggling to sell voters on their 2025 tax law ahead of the midterms."
Simon Wang, an economic mobility specialist, told Politico, "You're seeing an increasing trend of (opportunity zones) being utilized to develop data centers." And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), whose district includes Silicon Valley, told Politico, "Trump has made it an issue by saying that he wants data centers reigning everywhere; he's basically saying he doesn't care about local control, he doesn't care about local communities. We can be on the side of local cities, rural communities, factory towns, suburbs — places that don't want Big Tech coming and telling them what to do."