Artificial intelligence — and the data centers needed to power it — are major political issues this midterm election.
More than two-thirds of New Hampshire residents would oppose an AI data center being built in their town and 45% would support halting construction of any more data centers statewide, according to a University of New Hampshire poll from June.
If policies about AI and data centers matter to your vote, we’ve compiled information on where the candidates for major offices this year stand.
Gubernatorial: Republican Kelly Ayotte vs Democrat Cinde Warmington
Both Republican incumbent Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her opponent Democrat Cinde Warmington are calling for a temporary moratorium on building new data centers in the state, but they differ on how they would do so.
Ayotte plans to put a moratorium on new data centers in her state budget plan.
Ayotte spoke out earlier this year against data center proposals in Bow and Nottingham. In an interview with NHPR, Ayotte said that based on her conversations with the head of the region’s electric grid operator, ISO New England, the state's energy infrastructure can’t support large data centers without ratepayers seeing their bills go up.
“I don't want that to happen. I want to bring energy costs down,” she said.
Ayotte said she plans to include a moratorium on new data center construction in her 2027 state budget proposal. The proposal, which will be introduced in February, would need approval by the state Legislature, and the state budget takes effect on July 1, meaning a moratorium enacted that way would not go into effect until next summer at the earliest.
Warmington calls for an immediate executive order imposing a moratorium.
Warmington criticized Ayotte’s plan and what she called the governor’s failure to take action sooner, telling NHPR that Ayotte “provided no leadership” on a doomed Democratic-led effort to enact a moratorium this spring in the Legislature. Warmington said that as governor she would issue an executive order banning the facilities, as opposed to putting the measure in her budget.
“I want a moratorium and I want it now,” she told NHPR. “Kelly is proposing something in her budget into the future. By the time that's enacted, we will have data centers in our state.”
Ayotte, for her part, said during an Oct. 22 NHPR candidate forum that a governor isn’t legally allowed to issue a moratorium via executive order, according to conversations she said she had with the state’s attorney general.
During that same debate, Warmington criticized Ayotte for signing HB 672 into last year. The bill deregulated off-grid electricity providers, meaning facilities that supply their own power would not be subject to oversight from the Public Utilities Committee and could skirt certain regulations related to pricing and renewable energy.
As the bill was being debated, its proponents said it would support energy-intensive facilities like data centers, while potentially protecting ratepayers from rising costs by preventing additional strain from being added to the grid.
Ayotte pushed back against Warmington’s characterization of the bill.
“HB 672 was signed to make it easier to drive down electric costs,” she said in a statement.
U.S. Senate: Democrat Chris Pappas vs Republican John Sununu
Both Democrat Rep. Chris Pappas and Republican John E. Sununu have said they support a state-level moratorium on data center construction. While U.S. senators do not oversee state policy, they could take a policy position on any federal legislation that could restrict or protect state-level moratoriums.
Both Sununu and Pappas have called for more federal oversight of AI, though they named different priorities and strategies.
In an interview, Pappas told NHPR that Congress should establish “guardrails that will regulate big tech," and a federal approval process for new AI models before they are made public. During a Oct. 13 debate, he said the US should embrace the positive aspects of AI and “outcompete China.”
As a member of Congress, Pappas signed a bipartisan letter on Oct. 14 raising concerns about tech behemoth Meta using a federal tax credit to fund data center construction.
Sununu has called for rules primarily around AI safety and security, saying he would advocate for legislation that protects children and seniors, and prioritizes cybersecurity and national security.
1st Congressional District: Democrat Stefany Shaheen vs Republican Anthony DiLorenzo
In the race for Pappas’ seat in the U.S. House, the candidates disagree on how to address data center construction.
Democrat Stefany Shaheen has called for a statewide moratorium.
Republican Anthony DiLorenzo has said he is in favor of local communities making that decision themselves.
“I support local control. If a local municipality wants to support a data center, they should be able to do so and along with a data center comes a lot of economic prosperity,” DiLorenzo said during an Oct.19 debate.
When it comes to AI development, both have said there is a need for regulations at the Congressional level, but they differed on how they would like to see this accomplished.
During an Oct. 6 NHPR candidate debate, DiLorenzo called for a “public-private partnership” for crafting these regulations, so that the U.S. “[wins] the AI race” but privacy, children and jobs are protected.
“AI has the potential to devastate our labor markets, and if we are not proactive in addressing AI, it could be catastrophic,” he said.
Shaheen said Congress should set AI regulations that prioritize safety and economic security.
“We need a regulatory roadmap that gives control to the states to protect our economies here at home, and we need to be clear about where those threats exist, how we protect young people, how we protect the future of our economy,” she said during the same Oct. 6 debate.
2nd Congressional District: Democrat Maggie Goodlander vs Republican Lily Tang Williams
Democratic Incumbent Rep. Maggie Goodlander is the only Democratic candidate in a major race this election to not endorse a statewide moratorium on data center construction.
Her campaign office told NHPR in an email that she supports stricter data center development oversight, including that no new data centers are built without approval from the local community, and “data centers pay every dime of the costs so Granite State and American families are not footing any part of the bill.”
Williams does not support a statewide moratorium and has emphasized the need to protect local taxpayers from shouldering any additional energy or infrastructure costs.
“After talking with people across my district, my feedback to those writing local laws is this: decisions about where data centers go should be made by local communities and the people who live there, not by a blanket rule from Concord,” her campaign told NHPR in an email.
During the Republican primary for this seat, Williams saw the potential for data centers to lower energy costs and property taxes, but concluded “right now, we are not in a good position to have any medium sized to large sized data centers.”
The candidates have both called for regulating AI, but Goodlander has come out more strongly in favor of oversight for big tech companies than Williams.
In an interview with WMUR, Goodlander said Congress must push for a “pause on this rapidly advancing technology” and do so quickly, as to ensure AI safety and that its benefits “are shared by all of the people in this country, and not just by a tiny group of big tech billionaires.”
Williams’ campaign said in an email to NHPR that she would prioritize the protection of children and people’s privacy and personal data.
She said, “I oppose heavy-handed federal regulation that stifles innovation and hands big companies an advantage over smaller ones.”
On concerns about potential job loss, Williams envisions “some kind of reasonable constitutional protections” for impacted workers.
What about the State House?
Democratic-led efforts to ban or heavily restrict data center construction failed in the Legislature earlier this year, but state Republican leaders have changed course and are now calling for a statewide moratorium on new construction.
There are indications that legislators are looking to draft several bills related to data centers and AI regulation for the 2027 legislative session.
