A top Senate Republican just put his support behind a nationwide data center moratorium.

“Senate Republicans trying to figure out what to do in the next 6 weeks?” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley wrote in a post on X. “MORATORIUM on data centers”.

Hawley becomes the first Senate Republican to voice support for a data center moratorium, which has so far largely been championed by progressive Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Hawley’s post comes a week after his party was dealt a decisive blow in the midterm elections. Democrats flipped seats in Republican strongholds across the nation to gain back control of both the House and the Senate. In many races where Republicans suffered huge losses, data centers became a focal point.

Complaining about tanking property values, utility bill hikes, water shortages, smog-forming air pollution, and constant deafening humming noises, Americans have turned against AI companies’ trillions of dollars in ongoing and planned infrastructure buildout dramatically. The backlash has been particularly profound in rural areas ripe with AI data center development, where locals have also expressed concerns about loss of agricultural land.

In Hawley’s home state of Missouri, the backlash has been building for months as well. Back in September, the Missouri town of Independence even voted to recall a long-term City Council member over his support for AI data center tax breaks.

The self-proclaimed “AI bull” President Trump has not hidden his disdain for this growing anti-AI sentiment. He has claimed that the communities that oppose data center development would end up “ backwards and poor ,” and even rebuked protestors with a simple claim that “ you can’t fight it “.

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