Tech companies are building data centers across Indiana and the backlash from communities has reached the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Amazon, Google and Meta and smaller developers alike are planning an array of data centers — large facilities that house the computer servers behind cloud computing, streaming services and artificial intelligence and can draw enormous amounts of electricity and water.
Residents in rural communities to urban neighborhoods have protested over land, water and electricity use to environmental pollution, economic and health impacts. More than half of Indiana counties have passed restrictions on data centers, such as a zoning regulation, temporary moratorium or outright ban, according to research from the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute.
Most Indiana voters oppose new data centers, but few call them a top concern. A Free Press Indiana poll found 69% of likely voters oppose the construction of new data centers in the state, yet only 5% named artificial intelligence and data centers as their top concern. Other primary concerns are government corruption (24%) and inflation (20%).
A national Pew Research Center survey found the same tension: 61% of registered voters dislike political leaders who back data centers near them.
One prominent concern connected to data centers is their impact on utility bills. The FPI poll also found 90% of respondents are concerned about rising energy costs. Conducted by Bellwether Research, it surveyed 896 registered voters between Oct. 8-11 and has a ±3.4 percentage point margin of sampling error.
WFYI’s informal, online survey on what issues matter most to the public this year received dozens of concerns over data centers.
Therese Dorau, with the IU institute, said the data center issue is bringing home how policy choices affect people in Indiana who may not have been as civically active before.
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“People are becoming engaged locally in some cases for the first time ever,” Dorau said. “People with very different political ideals are coalescing around what they want for their communities, and I think that’s engendering a lot of conversation about taking control of your community’s regulations. That extends also to state decisions and state regulations.”
Many candidates in Indiana’s election staked out their positions on data center development in WFYI’s 2026 Voter Guide. Here’s what some said:
Statehouse candidates
At the state level, representatives and senators in the Indiana General Assembly passed a 2019 law giving data center developers large tax breaks — in some cases, up to 50 years of tax exemptions for operations.
For WFYI’s 2026 Voter Guide, reporters sent surveys with questions to candidates in 40 Indiana House and 10 Indiana Senate districts.
Two Democratic House candidate challengers, Brenna Geswein of House District 13 and David Boyd of House District 90, called for a statewide moratorium in their survey responses.
Republican Andrew Ireland, the incumbent also running in House District 90, said data centers “bring significant investment and strengthen Indiana's technology infrastructure” but called for responsible development rather than blank-check tax breaks.
Republican Rep. Becky Cash, incumbent for House District 25, said her constituents told her they don’t want data centers and the local community should be in charge. Her district, which includes portions of Hamilton and Boone counties, is near the Lebanon LEAP Innovation District, where Meta is building a $10 billion data center project.
“I support eliminating NDAs, full-transparency and public buy-in; as well as, revisiting tax structures around data centers,” Cash said in the WFYI survey. “IfF a community does decide that they want a data center, it should only be built after it is determined that there is enough water in the area and costs for electricity must not be passed to the community.”
Democratic District 25 candidate Tiffany Stoner, a business owner from Zionsville, said data centers can bring investment and jobs to Indiana but not at the expense of local communities. Stoner also opposed secrecy and non-disclosure agreements connected to the developments.
“Indiana should welcome responsible economic development, but growth should work for the communities where it happens,” she said.
Congressional candidates
President Donald Trump is taking a pro-data center stance. He’s also mocked opponents by saying communities that reject data center projects must want to stay "backwards and poor."
Indiana’s Congressional candidates are talking about data centers, too.
The race for the 5th Congressional district — which includes Hamilton County and Anderson, Kokomo, Marion and Muncie — is between incumbent Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz and State Senator J.D. Ford, a Democrat.
Ford said he filed legislation in the General Assembly over the past two years requiring transparency and regulations and to put local communities in charge of the decision.
“This is something that has garnered a lot of attention from multi-generations, different political stripes,” Ford said. “Look, these data centers, they’re eating up our electricity. There’s no reason to look elsewhere, why we have high utility rates in our state.”
Spartz said she has worked on the issue on the House Judiciary Committee and thinks there’s a need for smart policies.
“We cannot be adding data centers on the grid and not generate energy. We’ll not just have problems, you know, with utility costs; we’ll have a blackout,” said Spartz, who sent a letter to federal officials in September requesting an independent federal review of the LEAP District and other data centers in Indiana over concerns about resources and costs.
“I think data centers should be paying, and also be transparent what benefit and value they bring to the people,” she said.
In the 7th Congressional district in Indianapolis, incumbent Rep. André Carson, a Democrat, told WFYI he’s against data centers that don’t protect workers, families and local communities and acknowledged the facilities may be unavoidable.
“If that’s the case, if they’re going to come into communities and drain our resources, causing utility rates to soar, there must be limitations on these data centers and entities,” Carson said.
Carson, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act earlier this year, which would enact a moratorium until safeguards could be put in place.
Carson faces two challengers, Republican Patrick McAuley and Libertarian James Sceniak, who both emphasize protecting local neighborhoods.“...that's something that we have to get away from,” McAuley said.
Other offices
Local officials, like county commissioners, are directly involved in approving proposals to develop data centers in their communities. Some have approved moratoriums and other restrictions. There are 140 candidates on the ballot for county commissioner seats in all counties except Marion.
The issue has also spread to races for offices that don’t play a role in the process —from local school board candidates to the secretary of state.
To learn more about what candidates have to say about data centers and other issues this election, explore WFYI’s 2026 Voter Guide.
The election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Early voting is underway.
Contact WFYI data journalist Zak Cassel at zcassel@wfyi.org.
