On Thursday evening Newsreel, the media company founded by Jack Brewster, held a midterm event in a blue-lit Brooklyn warehouse, five days before the November 3 midterm elections. The audience included media figures, tech founders and policy advocates; speakers included Kenneth Schlenker, co-founder of the focus app Opal, Aryan Ranjan, who built Baraza campaign management software, and a panel on data centers that I moderated.
Brewster said the goal was for attendees to “put their phones away and talk to each other about the election, five days out.” Despite that intention, conversations repeatedly returned to artificial intelligence, data centers and growing backlash against the technocratic class.
Delay and opposition on a large scale
A recent report from Data Center Watch found nearly $200 billion in data center projects were delayed, stalled, or blocked in the first half of 2026 because of political and community opposition. States such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, New York and Virginia are considering greater transparency and guardrails for the rapid pace of data center development. Virginia in particular faces plans for hundreds of new data centers and is already widely described as the “data center capital of the world.”
Elected officials and local concerns
A fireside chat with New York City Council member Chi Ossé, held just before my panel, set a tone of skepticism. Ossé said he does not really use AI and did not present himself as strictly for or against it; rather, he emphasized greater accountability for tech executives and higher taxes on ultra-wealthy individuals like Elon Musk. “When CEOs talk about a technology that could deplete 10% of human civilization, they should be called to testify in front of Congress,” he said.
Panel: data centers as a physical manifestation of fear
I moderated a discussion with Maia Woluchem, a technology and human rights researcher, and Hilary Flint, an environmental and public health advocate, about the local impacts of data centers. When I asked the crowd, “Who here is pro-AI data center?” the initial hands were met with boos.
Panelists and attendees aired layered grievances: many think big tech is making secret deals with local officials to site billion-dollar data centers, and that zoning rules sometimes leave communities unclear about what is being proposed until it is too late to organize. People struggling with rising costs of living fear losing control over their neighborhoods while tech leaders discuss AI displacing workers or threatening humanity. Flint said the structures have become tangible embodiments of community anger toward the tech class and technological acceleration.
“What is a life worth?” Flint asked when I noted some communities have seen benefits from build-outs. She argued residents still protest because they “value their lives a little bit more than a temporary check.”
Broader political conversation
A later panel featuring Batya Ungar-Sargon (NewsNation), political strategist Morris Katz (who worked on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign), and Astead Herndon (Vox) intended to discuss the future of the Democratic Party but again kept returning to data centers. Ungar-Sargon observed that some labor unions support data centers for the jobs they promise; reporting indicates many jobs are short-term during construction and do not persist.
Katz expressed skepticism, saying it’s often the same institutions that removed union jobs now returning to claim remaining gains. Herndon emphasized the lack of consent in many places; he noted similar dynamics among Republican voters in some regions.
Community signs, culture and private conversations
After panels ended, attendees formed small groups and continued debating AI and data centers in private. Jack Brewster said AI came up in every onstage conversation and was the second-most common topic among questions submitted with RSVPs, even in New York where data centers are less visible. He added the backlash looks different by place: in rural areas people fear being replaced, while in places like Brooklyn the issue centers on who profits.
Attendees also raised concerns about deepfakes, AI assistants and AI-generated art. One person suggested AI art is beginning to signal cheapness, which may explain why luxury brands like Prada and Hermès are highlighting hand-drawn illustrations and artisans’ handmade work in holiday campaigns.
A software engineer I spoke with said data centers are also appearing in her Southern California hometown. She described a Chinese immigrant neighborhood where residents have posted yard signs depicting dragons strangling a data center; she said those images have since been translated into other languages.
Why it matters for the midterms
Beyond the conversations at a single Brooklyn event, the takeaway is that AI and data center concerns have become a voter issue. The Data Center Watch finding of nearly $200 billion in projects delayed, stalled or blocked in the first half of 2026, and growing state-level scrutiny, suggest the topic could influence voter decisions on November 3. Central questions include who has control over community development, who benefits economically from technological investments, and how environmental and health risks are addressed — issues that may sway votes in contested races.
Leaving the warehouse made clear that AI and data centers are no longer only technical or industry questions: they have become political and community debates that could shape the upcoming midterms.
