In a preview of political fights to come over artificial intelligence, the data center industry is starting to spend money on elections for the first time.
The industry faces growing resistance. Data centers have become a symbol of voters’ anxiety over the rapid development of A.I., and polling shows that wide numbers of Americans are uncomfortable with their construction.
Now, the industry is pushing to assert its power. Its first goal: electing Senator Darline Graham, a Republican, to a full term in South Carolina, where she is in an unexpectedly tight race against Dr. Annie Andrews, a Democrat.
This month, a new super PAC aligned with the data center industry has reserved $1.5 million worth of advertising to help Ms. Graham. The spending is most likely the tip of the iceberg for the super PAC, Building the Future, which is aiming to exert more influence in the 2028 election cycle and beyond.
“Candidates who make the case that A.I. infrastructure investment will bring good-paying jobs, economic opportunity, and new revenue to local communities, while putting responsible protections in place and earning local support, will win races,” said Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the group. “Building the Future will be there to help tell that story.”
The data center industry has reason to defend Ms. Graham, a first-time politician who was appointed after her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, died this summer. Her seat was considered safely Republican until polling showed Democrats gaining strength across the country, and a bitter special Republican primary election this summer left some Republican voters skeptical of Ms. Graham’s credentials.
Dr. Andrews has fiercely opposed data center developments. She has called for a two-year moratorium on new projects and nicknamed Ms. Graham “Data Center Darline.”
Ms. Graham has been friendlier toward the industry. She has tried to walk a line between framing data center development as a national security priority in a technological race against China, while stressing the need for community involvement. She has opposed moratoriums, arguing that halting construction would give China a dangerous advantage in artificial intelligence. She has also expressed support for local control over such projects.
“Sen. Graham trusts the people of South Carolina more than Washington politicians and believes America will beat China in any technological race,” T.W. Arrighi, a spokesman for Ms. Graham, said in a statement.
To help Ms. Graham, the data center super PAC has started airing two ads on her behalf. Neither of them mentions data centers, instead highlighting her work as commissioner of a state agency for blind residents.
Ms. Graham has lagged far behind Dr. Andrews in fund-raising. Since beginning to run ads on Oct. 17, Building the Future has been the second largest pro-Graham advertiser in the state, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact.
Building the Future was created by the people who run a super PAC that supports the A.I. industry called Leading the Future. That group has spent tens of millions on pro-A.I. candidates. But after months in which candidates have attacked data centers specifically, the political operatives behind Leading the Future wanted an advocacy organization more narrowly focused on supporting candidates who vocally favor data centers. Building the Future has not yet disclosed any of its donors.
The super PAC was announced less than two weeks after the National Republican Senatorial Committee practically begged the data center industry to come to the defense of Republicans in the midterms. In a remarkable memo, the committee singled out Senator Jon Husted, a Republican facing a close race in Ohio, saying that data centers had “become a sleeper issue” and that the “toxic” data center industry “will be blamed” if he loses.
Two weeks after that memo, a nonprofit group tied to Building the Future, Build American AI, began a roughly $7 million ad campaign promoting the data center industry, primarily in Ohio and two other states where the issue threatens to be an anvil for Republicans, Kansas and Wisconsin
Last month, two other A.I.-linked nonprofit groups, the Meta-funded American Edge Project and a new group backed by four data center developers, Infrastructure for America, started spending on advertising to defend the industry.
Already, South Carolina has offered a preview of voters’ views of data centers.
Glenda Brady, 68, lives in Spartanburg County, a community with a huge data center under construction.
“They’re here to stay, and frankly, we need them,” said Ms. Brady, who is a volunteer with the county Republican Party. “We don’t need for China to have them, that’s for sure.”
But Pamela Miller, 55, who identifies as a “hard-core Republican,” said she would vote for Dr. Andrews next week in part because of Ms. Graham’s stance on data centers. She said she would not vote for a Republican “if they back data centers.”
At a rally last week at a livestock facility about an hour from the construction site of a new data center, President Trump said data centers would be “so popular” if nearby residents received paychecks for the inconvenience.
It was one of the few moments in an otherwise energetic rally that the crowd went quiet.
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