AI Is on the Ballot: Trump Brings the Data Center Fight to Lubbock

President Donald Trump rallies in Lubbock on Tuesday, Oct. 27, for Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton. Democratic nominee James Talarico holds his own event at Texas Tech the same evening. And one of the biggest issues between them isn't on most people's radar in a typical Senate race: artificial intelligence, and the giant data centers that power it.

That issue has a West Texas address. Aligned is building a planned 540-megawatt AI data center campus near Abernathy. Fermi America holds a long-term ground lease with the Texas Tech University System for its planned Project Matador AI and power campus in Carson County. Texas Tech itself has invested in NVIDIA AI computing. The questions the candidates are fighting over — electricity, water, tax breaks and who gets a say — land squarely on the South Plains.

WHY AI BECAME A CAMPAIGN ISSUE

AI data centers use enormous amounts of electricity and, depending on how they're cooled, water. Texas has been one of the fastest-growing places to build them, and that growth has run into record power demand, water concerns and pushback from rural communities. The state has slowed approvals of new projects, and both campaigns now treat data centers as a top-tier issue.

It shows up in the polling. In an October survey by Texas Public Opinion Research of 969 likely voters, 47% said Talarico would do a better job handling issues related to AI and data centers, and 42% said Paxton; 8% weren't sure. The same poll had Talarico at 51% and Paxton at 47% overall; its margin of error is 3.9 points. A CBS News poll has called the race essentially tied, and Paxton's campaign cites an internal poll showing him ahead.

WHERE PAXTON STANDS

Paxton, who told a business podcast in May that AI data centers are a complicated issue and that the U.S. needs to outpace China in AI, according to KERA, released what he calls his "Texas First Data Center Plan" in August. As reported by Fox 7 Austin, Fox News and Newsweek, it would:

• bar Chinese technology from U.S. data centers and related infrastructure;
• make companies criminally liable when their data centers power AI chatbots that endanger children;
• back the federal DATA Act, aimed at data centers that produce their own power; and
• support Gov. Greg Abbott's push for limits on rural siting, noise and light controls, ending sales-tax breaks, and requiring data centers to fund their own power infrastructure.

Paxton, as Texas attorney general, has also opened an investigation into water use at data centers that haven't answered a state water-use survey, starting in 18 counties.

WHERE TALARICO STANDS

Talarico released his "Hold Data Centers Accountable" plan in July. According to the same reporting, it would:

• repeal state tax incentives for data centers and other large companies;
• give local residents more say over construction in their communities;
• require AI companies to pay for their own electricity and water infrastructure;
• hold data centers accountable for water pollution; and
• create an "AI Dividend" that gives every American a share of the profits generated by American AI companies.

"Texans get a say and get a share of that economic growth," Talarico said.

THE ATTACKS

Each side accuses the other of being too close to the industry. Talarico's campaign says Paxton has taken nearly half a million dollars from data-center interests, and it called Paxton's water probe a "reversal." Paxton's campaign says Talarico's campaign infrastructure has taken $12 million from donors with data-center ties. Neither figure has been independently verified. When Paxton posted his plan, Talarico's campaign called it "a plan he literally used AI to make"; Newsweek reported no response from Paxton's campaign.

WHERE THEY AGREE

Strip away the attacks and the two plans share a core idea: data centers, not ordinary ratepayers or taxpayers, should pay for the power and water infrastructure they need. They differ on how far to go — Talarico emphasizes local control, repealing incentives and a public share of AI profits; Paxton emphasizes national security, child safety and the governor's statewide limits.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE SOUTH PLAINS

For Lubbock-area residents, the outcome affects real choices ahead: how projects like Caprock and Matador are taxed, who pays for the power lines and water systems they need, how much say nearby communities get, and whether AI's profits stay local. Whoever wins will help shape the federal rules for an industry that is building some of its largest projects right here.