WASHINGTON — The Working Families Party launched a recruitment drive Thursday aimed at electing local candidates who want to slow or stop AI data centers, turning a surge of neighborhood backlash into a political test at the ballot box. The push comes as Sen. Bernie Sanders calls for a national moratorium on new AI data centers and Senate Democrats press Big Tech about whether the rapid buildout is contributing to higher electricity bills for families, Dec. 22, 2025.
Local fights over AI data centers move into elections
The progressive party is asking residents who have been fighting proposed facilities — often in zoning hearings and planning commission meetings — to run for office themselves. The effort is open nationwide but will initially focus on northern Virginia, parts of the upper Midwest and the Southwest, Wired reported.
“We see our role as responding to what working families and working people are concerned about,” said Ravi Mangla, the Working Families Party‘s national press secretary.
The organizing reflects how quickly AI data centers have shifted from obscure infrastructure to the kind of project that can dominate a town hall. Opponents cite rising power costs, water use, backup generators, constant cooling noise and tax incentives that they say don’t pencil out for residents who live nearby.
In northern Virginia — home to one of the world’s biggest clusters of data facilities — the politics have already turned volatile. A 2023 Democratic primary in Prince William County, Va., featured a surprise upset driven in part by backlash to data center expansion, the Associated Press reported.
Longer-term warnings have tracked the same arc. The International Energy Agency highlighted the sector’s growing footprint in its Electricity 2024 analysis, and a 2024 Washington Post investigation detailed how grid upgrades tied to data center growth were surfacing in state rate cases and, in some places, higher bills.
Federal pressure builds around AI data centers and power bills
In Washington, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., opened an investigation into whether data center expansion is driving up consumers’ electricity costs through confidential utility contracts and infrastructure spending. In a Dec. 16 news release, Warren’s office said the senators sent letters to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, CoreWeave, Digital Realty and Equinix and warned: “Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”
The senators cited a U.S. Department of Energy projection that data centers could account for 12% of U.S. power consumption by 2028 and set a response deadline of Jan. 12, 2026.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has urged an even harder stop. He endorsed a national moratorium on new data center construction this week, citing concerns about the unregulated growth of artificial intelligence and its impacts, according to E&E News by POLITICO.
Regulators are also rewriting rules for how AI data centers connect to the grid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered PJM Interconnection to clarify standards for linking massive new loads — including facilities built next to power plants — after critics warned the arrangements could strain reliability and affect rates, Reuters reported.
States are weighing the cost question in real time. In Georgia, regulators approved Georgia Power‘s $16.3 billion plan to add 10,000 megawatts of new capacity over six years, with the utility projecting about 80% of that new power would serve data centers. Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene said, “Large energy users are paying more so families and small businesses can pay less,” the AP reported.
For the Working Families Party, the bet is that local elections may be the quickest lever: win the seats that decide where AI data centers go — and who pays to power them.
