Tuesday’s midterms weren’t only about Washington. In a lot of places, they were about the power bill. Democrats took control of both the House and the Senate, and a surprising number of winners campaigned against the same target: the AI data centers that have been driving up electricity demand across the country.
Within hours, Democratic lawmakers were promising investigations. “They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” Senator Ed Markey posted. Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, put it in two words: “Lawyer up.” UNILAD Tech asked whether the results could change what Americans pay for electricity, and whether OpenAI’s $500 billion Stargate project could end up in the crosshairs. We looked at the numbers and at what a Democratic Congress can and can’t actually do.
The short version
- Democrats won both chambers. A few Senate and House races are still being counted.
- Data centers were a ballot issue in their own right. Voters rejected them in 40 of 41 local measures, according to Ballotpedia figures cited by CNBC.
- The average US home paid 16.48 cents per kWh in 2024. The government forecasts 18.2 cents this year and 18.7 cents in 2027.
- Starting in January, Democrats can hold hearings and issue subpoenas. Passing a data center moratorium is another matter, since President Trump can veto it.
- The faster changes are likely to come from states and utility regulators, not Congress.
Why data centers became a campaign issue
The clearest example came from Ohio. Governor-elect Amy Acton, who beat Vivek Ramaswamy, promised a “conditional moratorium” on data centers. Under her terms, operators would have to “cover one hundred percent of their utility costs, exclusively build with union labor, operate with full transparency,” meet Ohio’s environmental standards and bring jobs to former industrial areas. “Costs are too high, and Ohio families and businesses need protection from data centers driving up costs,” she said. “Ohio is open for business, but we are not up for sale.”
That matters more than it might sound. Ohio’s governor appoints the state’s utility regulators, and Ohio is home to one of OpenAI’s Stargate sites in Lordstown.
In Texas, where the original Stargate campus in Abilene is located, Democrat James Talarico beat Ken Paxton with about 55% of the vote. He’s the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988. Local votes told a similar story. Trackers disagree on the exact count, but CNBC, citing Ballotpedia, reported that data center projects lost in 40 of 41 local ballot measures. An NBC News exit poll found 76% of voters would oppose a data center in their community.
What’s actually happening to electricity bills
Electricity has gotten noticeably more expensive. Here’s the average US residential price from the Energy Information Administration, including its forecast for this year and next.
That’s roughly a 13% increase over three years for the average household. Some states have been hit much harder. In August, residential prices were up 22.5% from a year earlier in Hawaii, 14.1% in Maine and 11.3% in Virginia, according to an analysis of EIA data by ElectricRates.org. Ohio saw a 19.4% jump in April.
Data centers are a big part of the reason, though not the only one. In PJM, the grid operator that serves 13 states from Illinois to New Jersey, the most recent capacity auction cleared at the maximum allowed price of $333.44 per megawatt-day, a record. PJM’s own report says data centers accounted for about 5,100 MW of the 5,250 MW increase in expected demand. Those capacity costs flow straight into utility bills.
Nationally, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers used 4.4% of US electricity in 2023 and projected that share could rise to between 6.7% and 12% by 2028.
There’s an important caveat. A 2026 study by the consulting firm E3 found that Texas and Virginia, the states with the most new demand, actually saw some of the smallest rate increases, because growing demand spreads fixed grid costs across more users. Rising bills also reflect wildfire costs, aging power lines and natural gas prices. Data centers are a real factor, but blaming them for every dollar is too simple.
What Democrats can actually do
The new Congress is sworn in in early January 2027. From then on, Democrats run every committee. Here’s what that changes and what it doesn’t.
| Action | Can Democrats do it alone? | What stands in the way |
|---|---|---|
| Hold hearings with AI CEOs | Yes | Nothing. Committees set their own agendas. |
| Subpoena documents on Stargate deals | Yes | Enforcing an ignored subpoena goes through Trump’s Justice Department. |
| Pass a data center moratorium | No | A presidential veto. Overriding takes two-thirds of both chambers. |
| Make data centers pay their own grid costs | Maybe | Needs 60 Senate votes. A bipartisan version already passed the House 417 to 3. |
| Block funding in budget bills | Maybe | Leverage in shutdown fights, but most data center money is private. |
The moratorium is the headline idea. In March, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would pause new or expanded AI data centers until Congress passes rules on AI safety, workers and energy costs. We broke down what the Sanders bill would do when it was announced. Analysts quoted by The National expect any such bill to “face an immediate veto.”
The bill with a real chance is narrower. The Ratepayer Protection Act, from Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted, would require large data centers to cover the grid costs they create. It passed the House 417 to 3 but fell short in the Senate in September, 57 to 43, below the 60 votes needed. Some Democrats called it too weak. With a bigger majority, a stronger version is the most likely data center law to reach Trump’s desk.
Is Stargate really a target?
Stargate was announced at the White House in January 2025 by President Trump, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SoftBank and Oracle as a $500 billion buildout of AI infrastructure. By September 2025, OpenAI had named five sites beyond Abilene, in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio and the Midwest, adding up to nearly 7 gigawatts. The project has had its problems since. OpenAI and Oracle dropped a planned expansion in Abilene in March, and Oracle’s heavy borrowing to fund the buildout has drawn lawsuits from bondholders.
So far, no committee has announced an investigation into Stargate. The idea comes from the general mood, not a specific plan. Texas Representative Greg Casar has said AI CEOs “should be called to testify under oath,” and Stargate’s ties to the White House make it an obvious candidate for hearings. But a hearing is not a shutdown. Most of the money behind the project is private, and the sites are already under construction.
OpenAI seems to see the risk coming. In an essay before the election, its global affairs chief Chris Lehane warned Democrats against embracing a moratorium, while conceding that communities shouldn’t have to “accept higher electricity costs.” OpenAI now calls its sites “compute campuses” and talks about signing “community compacts” with the places that host them.
Where the real changes will happen
If you want to know whether your bill goes down, watch your state, not Congress. Several states have already acted:
- Ohio: AEP Ohio’s data center tariff makes facilities over 25 MW pay for at least 85% of the capacity they reserve for up to 12 years, whether they use it or not.
- Virginia: Regulators created a separate rate class for the largest power users in late 2025, with similar minimum charges.
- Texas: A 2025 law lets the grid operator cut power to large data centers during emergencies, and Governor Abbott paused new data center grid connections this fall pending an audit.
Local pushback is spreading too. This summer, the Cherokee Nation banned hyperscale data centers on its land. Meanwhile, some operators are skipping the grid entirely, with data centers burning retired jet engines for on-site power.
Sources and further reading
- UNILAD Tech: Midterm results could transform Americans’ electricity bills as winners target AI
- UNILAD Tech: OpenAI could face Democratic investigation over Stargate
- EIA: Short-Term Energy Outlook, electricity
- Berkeley Lab: Report on data center electricity demand
- CNBC: Data center ballot measures in the 2026 midterms
- Senator Sanders: AI Data Center Moratorium Act
- OpenAI: Five new Stargate sites
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