Concerns about datacenters and high energy bills could help Democrats clinch races in Ohio, Arizona and Michigan

In Arizona, where summer temperatures regularly hit triple digits, air conditioning can be a matter of life and death. This year, as the state recorded its hottest summer on record, Diali Avila’s monthly power bill went up to $400, the highest it has ever been.

Avila, the state director for Climate Power, an advocacy group, said the upcoming elections offered voters an opportunity to elect candidates who can ease their utility bills. “People are making the connection: they’re looking at their electricity bills that they get at the end of the month, and then they’re looking at their ballot, and they’re [realizing], this is my moment to take action,” she said.

Residents of Menomonie mounted a successful protest against a huge campus proposed by Meta – and community resistance to the AI boom is growing

In the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin.

Weeks into the new job, she was invited to a meeting with consultants pitching a $1.6bn AI hyperscale datacenter campus that an undisclosed big tech company wanted to build just outside of town. The project’s numbers were eye-opening: a 320-acre site that would use an estimated 75,000 gallons of water per day, making it the most significant development in Menomonie’s nearly 150-year history.