Wisconsin voters in Port Washington, a small suburb of Milwaukee, just dealt a potentially significant blow to President Donald Trump’s data center dreams.
Trump, who has been showered with money and gifts from Big Tech oligarchs, has issued multiple executive orders pressing for rapid construction of controversial data centers that can be used to power artificial intelligence tools. But the buildout has gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least, amid bipartisan backlash — particularly over the centers’ environmental impacts and tendency to raise energy costs in surrounding communities. Trump has tried to respond to these concerns with nonbinding guarantees from Big Tech executives.
And if Tuesday’s vote in Wisconsin is any sign, those guarantees aren’t going to be enough to stem the rising tide of opposition. Unofficial results suggest Port Washington voters, by a margin of roughly 2-to-1, backed a measure requiring city officials to seek voter approval before authorizing tax-subsidized districts for developers. The initiative was introduced in direct response to a Trump-backed data center being built in Port Washington, which will be operated by OpenAI and Oracle — two companies whose respective top executives, Sam Altman and Larry Ellison, are Trump allies.
Politico noted the referendum is the first of its kind in the nation and will apply to future projects, not the data center currently in progress:
The Port Washington referendum doesn’t actually derail the city’s controversial data center campus — a $15 billion, 1.3-gigawatt facility from tech giants OpenAI and Oracle that’s one of multiple ‘Stargate’ AI megaprojects the companies are planning with the Trump administration’s support. Instead, it takes aim at future projects by requiring city leaders to obtain voter approval before awarding developers lucrative tax incentives.
Representatives for OpenAI and Oracle didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Port Washington ballot measure is being challenged in court, but its success in winning over voters could inspire more states to follow suit.
Indeed, as Politico notes, there are already upcoming referendums in other states that would similarly target data centers, which could give voters yet more opportunity to throw sand in the gears of Trump’s plans.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.