A data center owned by Amazon Web Services, front right, is under construction next to the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on January 14, 2025.
Ted Sheffery | AP
AI-driven data center boom in Pennsylvania – including $20 billion investment Amazon – Political anger is brewing in Keystone State districts that could help decide control of the U.S. House.
Four competitive House races are in the eastern part of the state, where Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is focusing on his data center expansion plans. Republicans represent all four districts and are looking to not only hold their seats in the November election but maintain control of the House, where the party has a five-seat majority.
Political analysts say data center mobility could harm those in power, who would bear the brunt of public reaction to unpopular developments.
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter finds all four districts active Evaluate each Congress race. The Cook Report lists the 7th, 8th, and 10th districts as “toss-ups”. Cook rates the 1st District in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, as “likely Republican”, so it is also considered active. It is represented by Brian Fitzpatrick and is set to see construction from Amazon’s cash investment.
Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said the bipartisan backlash around data centers has further complicated an already difficult environment for Republicans in competitive districts.
“They’re really caught between opposing forces,” he said. “Many of these people have been in an uncomfortable, challenging position from the beginning, and (the data center issues) have created another challenge.”
Borick said the increase in data center opposition has created a difficult tightrope for Republican incumbents as they aim to balance President Donald Trump’s energy agenda and need to support AI development with his constituents’ frustration and opposition to data center construction.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., whose 10th District victory in 2024 was one of the closest margins in the country, said that although he is engaged on national energy policy, he considers large-scale data center regulation to be outside his purview.
“At the end of the day, most of these things…are local issues to local municipalities,” he said. “As a federal guy, you know, I don’t get into local zoning and construction and what municipalities choose or don’t choose. Those are local decisions.”
In the 7th and 8th districts, Republican Representatives Ryan McKenzie and Rob Bresnahan, respectively, ousted incumbent Democrats in 2024.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaks during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit 2025 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on July 15, 2025.
David A. Grogan | cnbc
Data centers are being built across the US, growing in concentration in long-time hotspots such as Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley”. Pennsylvania, in the Amazon, Microsoft And black Stone-backed QTS is leveraging Shapiro’s existing energy infrastructure efforts and supply of former industrial sites and farmland ripe for rezoning to transform the state into one of the nation’s next big data center markets. Microsoft plans to use energy generated by reopening Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor To power your data centers.
The novelty of hyperscale data center buildouts presents a unique set of circumstances for politicians to navigate, as data centers remain one of the few issues in a polarized political environment without positions delineated specifically along party lines. An unexpected coalition has formed in the data center opposition movement, with environmental groups joining forces with populist Trump supporters.
Ginny Marsile-Kerslake, senior organizer for eastern Pennsylvania for the environmental advocacy group Food & Water Watch, said local opposition to data center projects is strong in Pennsylvania’s swing districts, with residents often united across party lines. The state already has More than 100 data centers.
“In my 10 years of organizing, I have never seen such a situation of protest,” he said. “And especially in communities that find they are being targeted for a project.”
Representative GT Thompson, a Republican who represents a safe seat in north-central Pennsylvania, said he has seen growing discussion about data centers in the state and that he is sympathetic to voters’ concerns about construction displacing farmers.
“It’s talked about a lot everywhere I go in Pennsylvania,” Thompson said. “It’s an evolution of technology that I think is here to stay. One of the controversial issues that I hear a lot about and I agree with – I really don’t want these on prime agricultural land.”
“Energy-wise, I also don’t really want them on the grid,” he said.
Cooling towers at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle Davis | cnbc
Data center construction has become a flashpoint across the country in the still-young primary election season. According to one, opponents have delayed or blocked 48 data center projects in 2025, affecting $156 billion in potential investment. report Released in April by data center watchA project of nonpartisan AI security research firm 10A Labs.
In Maine, legislators approved the first statewide ban on data center construction on April 14. Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, will need to sign the measure for it to take effect. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are Considering three years moratorium On “hyperscale” data centers, a term loosely defined but generally refers to data centers with more than 5,000 servers and 10,000 square feet.
Data center opposition growing in Lehigh Valley
In the Lehigh Valley’s 7th District, historically a swing district and now represented by vulnerable freshman Republican Ryan McKenzie, opposition to the data center is growing. In the Allentown suburb of South Whitehall Township, community members are investigating the Atlas Industrial Data Center, a six-building, more than 5 million square foot data center complex that will be built across the street from a high school, which has sparked concern among local residents.
Cheryl Lutz, South Whitehall resident He told CNBC that after hearing stories of rising electricity prices, blackouts and noise pollution that plague people living near data centers, he is concerned about what impact the new data center could have on his home value.
“Will this make it impossible for me to sell my house?” Lutz said.
High power costs may trouble incumbents
Borick said the protest has grown in size and political significance due to the data center industry’s alleged ties to rising electricity costs.
“If you’re looking for the straw that stirred the drink, that was the straw,” Borick said.
Christopher Nichols, a Republican political consultant in Pennsylvania, said Democratic challengers have seized on Republican attitudes toward data centers and tried to blame incumbents for the rising electricity prices associated with them.
Nichols, president of Eagle Consulting Group, said, “You’re seeing candidates, especially challengers, trying to attack incumbents on rising utility prices – especially electricity. As if any incumbent of any party is in charge of how much a utility charges you for your electricity.”
Eric Isaacson | DigitalVision | getty images
Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, a trade association, said the industry is committed to practices such as internalizing power costs and guarding against efficient water use.
“Digital infrastructure is truly the backbone of the 21st century economy,” Diorio said. “This is a critical part of maintaining the global economic competitiveness of the United States. We need to keep pace with other countries that are rapidly building both energy and digital infrastructure.”
Americans’ electric bill rates in 2025 are set to increase by 21.7% in Pennsylvania and 8.3% nationwide. US Energy Information AdministrationWhich said it used data collected on retail sales revenue and volume to calculate the average retail revenue per kWh.
Nichols said successful Republicans will empathize with their constituents’ energy affordability concerns rather than fight them.
He said, “I think smart Republicans want to say that they also want low or stable electricity prices, and they also want to see these data centers put in appropriate locations. And I think that will be a good strategy for this year.”
Yet, as affordability constraints continue and voters increasingly focus on cost-of-living concerns, incumbent politicians may feel pressure to take a strong position on whether they support or oppose new data center construction.
“The pressure is mounting,” Boric said. “It’s starting to come up more regularly, the demand for some kind of clear leadership. And then, they’ve become cautious, because it’s a difficult issue to deal with.”
“Challengers have an advantage in this,” Borick said. “Because a lot of this, rightly or wrongly, is going to be laid at the feet of the incumbents.”
Lutz said that with data center construction on the horizon in the backyards of many swing district voters, politicians’ reactions to data center construction will impact voters’ minds at the ballot box in a way they haven’t before.
“If you’re going to run in November, it’s important to know what you’re going to do about data centers,” Lutz said. “It will definitely be on everyone’s mind. So I think if they ignore it, it’s at their own risk.”
– CNBC garrett downs And emily wilkins Contributed to this report.