{"id":77786,"date":"2026-08-24T14:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=77786"},"modified":"2026-08-24T14:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T18:52:50","slug":"ai-data-centers-become-a-huge-election-outcome-alerting-issue-favoring-democrats-over-republican-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=77786","title":{"rendered":"

AI Data Centers Become A HUGE Election Outcome-Altering Issue Greatly Favoring Democrat Over Republican Candidates<\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Molly Hennessy-Fiske<\/p>\n

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TEMPLE, Texas \u2014 Twyla Lowry plans to do something this November she could not have imagined doing even a few months ago: She\u2019s going to vote for a Democrat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That would be Gina Hinojosa, running to prevent Republican Greg Abbott from winning a record fourth term as governor. Hinojosa, 52, has a fairly standard platform of Democratic issues \u2014 end\u00a0state school vouchers<\/a>, and lower health care, grocery and utility costs. She has even promised to send every Texan $1,500 from the state rainy day fund.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But for Lowry, a retired social worker and special education teacher in this Central Texas city of about 100,000, all that matters is that Hinojosa wants to impose a moratorium\u00a0on data center projects<\/a> and Abbott doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s pushing for them. Everything\u2019s so shady,\u201d said Lowry, 56, who had voted for Abbott all three times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lowry, a conservative Christian and lifelong Republican, said she\u2019s not switching parties. In fact, she plans to vote for\u00a0Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in his race for U.S. Senate<\/a>.\u00a0<\/b>But her willingness to split her ticket for even one race is a sign the Texas political landscape \u2014 at least this cycle \u2014 is scrambling in unprecedented ways that could result in surprising statewide wins for the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A recent\u00a0Fox News\u00a0<\/a>poll<\/a>\u00a0showed Hinojosa, a lawyer and state legislator based in Austin, within a point of Abbott, a sign of weakness in a state where the GOP usually boasts a nine- to 12-point advantage. Last week, the nonpartisan\u00a0Cook Political Report<\/a>\u00a0shifted the governor\u2019s race from \u201csolid\u201d to \u201clikely\u201d Republican. The picture in the U.S. Senate race to replace John Cornyn is even tighter, according to Cook, which lists the contest as a \u201ctoss up\u201d between Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Vietnam veterans Tommy Baird, Juan Salinas and Jim Babb attend a Democratic rally in Killeen, Texas, which included U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa. (Joel Angel Juarez\/For The Washington Post)<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This wouldn\u2019t be the first time polls have given Democrats reason to hope for an upset, only to be disappointed on Election Day. And Texas Republicans have shown a reluctance to split tickets over the past several decades. Republicans control the levers of power in Texas, and a Democrat hasn\u2019t won statewide office since 1994. Texas last elected a Democratic governor in 1990 (Ann Richards) and a Democratic senator in 1988 (Lloyd Bentsen).\u00a0<\/b>But now some conservatives and right-leaning independents say they plan to vote Democratic in protest, dissatisfied with how the GOP is handling issues such as data centers, water, electricity, schools and the economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even more unusual is how vocal some of these conservatives are about their dissatisfaction. They\u2019ve adopted a slogan \u201cBreak Rank,\u201d an indication that they are not content simply to sit out the election but want to punish their party with a vote for the opposition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lifelong Republican voter Tom Weeks met with Hinojosa recently wearing a homemade \u201cBreak Rank<\/a>\u201d T-shirt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy party has failed,\u201d said Weeks, 66, who retired from the paper supply business to the North Texas suburb of Granbury where he\u2019s been fighting both data centers and a bitcoin mine that arrived a few years ago, bringing round-the-clock noise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNothing has been done by our party to help,\u201d Weeks said. \u201cAny Republican who has been in office since we started this fight, I\u2019m not going to vote for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Conservative friends accused Weeks of \u201cmaking a deal with the devil,\u201d but he\u2019s defiant. \u201cWe\u2019re going to vote for whoever we think understands our plight and she does,\u201d he said of Hinojosa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rena Schroeder, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a state Senate seat last March, recently attended a Talarico campaign event featuring Hinojosa at the civic center in Killeen and said she plans to vote Democratic. Schroeder, who now identifies as independent, helped start a \u201cBreak Rank\u201d group that she said has drawn about 100 voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re calling it \u2018breaking rank\u2019 because of the level of corruption,\u201d in the Republican Party, she said. \u201cWe the people are breaking rank.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hinojosa is hopeful she can shave off enough votes among independents, rural and suburban conservatives to win. Before she spoke at the packed event near Temple, Hinojosa met with local Democrats to discuss their pitch to swing voters. A volunteer asked Hinojosa, who\u2019s from the border city of Brownsville, how to persuade Latinos who voted for President Donald Trump to return to the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA lot of them have buyers\u2019 remorse,\u201d Hinojosa said, noting she\u2019d spoken with some upset\u00a0by\u00a0<\/a>recent fatal ICE shootings<\/a>. \u201cWe can invite them back in. That creates an opportunity for us. They\u2019re not saying \u2018Yay, Democrats!\u2019 But they are saying \u2018We don\u2019t want this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In an interview afterward with The Post, Hinojosa emphasized the national implications of her race. A Democratic governor, she said, would block a Republican-controlled Texas legislature from further congressional gerrymandering in favor of the GOP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere can be no path to a Democratic-controlled Congress when that happens,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cOnce they hold on and rig those elections, how do you get it back?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hinojosa speaks to voters in Killeen, Texas, earlier this month. (Joel Angel Juarez\/For The Washington Post)<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This week, Hinojosa debuted an ad attacking Abbott on data centers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOur job is to raise enough money to tell people who I am and what I\u2019m about. We don\u2019t have to raise as much money as him, just enough to do that,\u201d she said, noting that Republicans poured millions into Cornyn\u2019s campaign yet he still lost his primary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Abbott\u2019s campaign, so far, has largely focused on Democrats broadly rather than singling out Hinojosa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe contrast in this election couldn\u2019t be clearer. Democrats want higher taxes and support policies like defunding the police, abolishing prisons, and boys playing in girls\u2019 sports. Governor Abbott is focused on the issues that matter to Texas families: slashing property taxes and lowering the costs of healthcare, insurance, electricity, housing, and education,\u201d Eduardo Leal, press secretary for the Abbott campaign, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If Texas Republicans split their tickets, it\u2019s not clear which Texas Democrats stand to benefit most. Weeks and Lowry said they won\u2019t vote for Talarico because they consider him too liberal. Others like Glenda Berg plan to vote for Talarico\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0Hinojosa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Berg, 84, a retired bookkeeper and lifelong Republican who lives near Temple in Belton and whose daughter attended the Hinojosa event, said she voted for Abbott and Trump three times but has been \u201cappalled\u201d by the president acting \u201cagainst what democracy is based on.\u201d In particular, she said she is opposed to the mid-decade congressional redistricting that Republicans championed at Trump\u2019s urging.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed with the way [Abbott] follows everything Trump says and does,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some Texas political experts question whether Hinojosa can win without Talarico prevailing at the top of the ticket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe question is: Will there be this rising tide, this blue wave? If it takes out Paxton, who will be next?\u201d said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. \u201cFor Hinojosa to win, she needs to do three things: Win an overwhelming majority of the Democrat vote, which she seems on track to do. Second: Win the support of independent voters by a 2-1 margin, which she seems to be doing. And three: Win at least 10 to 15 percent of the Republican vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, Texas is reliably Republican, and Abbott has a record of turning out the base. \u201cAbbott going down would be an earthquake,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jones predicted Abbott will hammer Hinojosa in the coming weeks with attack ads highlighting her liberal legislative record. As a state lawmaker for the past nine years, Hinojosa fought the state school voucher program, helped lead a legislative walkout in 2025 that delayed passage of a new congressional redistricting map, and voted against restricting transgender medical care for minors and limiting abortion access in the state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat might give pause to those voters who say they\u2019re going to vote for Hinojosa as a protest against Abbott,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Voters in Killeen, Texas, hold signs in support of Hinojosa for governor. (Joel Angel Juarez\/For The Washington Post)<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said the unusually competitive election is challenging Republicans\u2019 allegiance, but cautioned that in Texas, \u201cIt\u2019s going to take a lot for a Republican to vote for a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Logan Olson stopped by the Talarico-Hinojosa event in Killeen last week. A single mother and substitute teacher running a livestock business, she voted for Trump last election. Now she\u2019s upset about data centers but encouraged by Abbott\u2019s proposed regulations, noting \u201cat least he acknowledged the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOur government needs to govern our economy,\u201d said Olson, 36, railing against the culture wars. \u201cWe\u2019re getting so lost with stuff that should be discussed behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So will she vote for Hinojosa?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not sure yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nhttps:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2026\/08\/24\/some-texas-conservatives-are-planning-vote-democrat\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77786"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77792,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77786\/revisions\/77792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}