Democrat Tiffany Stoner said her win over incumbent Rep. Becky Cash, R-Zionsville, mostly came by knocking on doors and talking to voters.
The issue many residents wanted to talk about that she thinks helped propel her to victory? Data centers, Stoner said.
“I think data centers played a huge role, not only across Indiana, but really across the U.S.,” she said. “There was definitely a reckoning about them, because I do feel like the public trust has been broken.”
Data centers took a central role in campaigns from both parties, as candidates used the issue to attack challengers and tie them to policies or statements that supported the developments.
Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political scientist at the University of Indianapolis, said the issue provided an easy litmus test for Hoosier voters — nearly 70% of whom said they oppose construction of new data centers, according to a Free Press Indiana Poll.
“Voters wanted to hear that you were the anti-data center candidate,” she said. “They were very easily able to make a judgment on whether or not they liked a candidate based on their stance.”
But how well that messaging landed for candidates depended on the race and the district, according to Michelle Higgs, executive director of Indiana Rural Summit, a statewide initiative to elevate rural voices and support rural candidates.
She said each of the candidates her group worked with that “had data centers in their crosshairs” took different approaches with different outcomes.
The winners
In northwest Indiana, where the most data centers are located, Democrat and political newcomer Ryan Kominakis beat out Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso. Soliday, who has been in office for 20 years, is chair of the House Utilities Committee and authored a bill in 2019 incentivizing data centers to come to Indiana.
Kominakis, a member of the Indiana Rural Summit, won by hammering Soliday over his support for the developments and calling for more oversight and transparency, Higgs said.
Stoner said her campaign message supporting more local input, an end to tax breaks and a ban on non-disclosure agreements resonated with voters in her district, which borders the massive Lebanon LEAP District where Meta is building a 1,500-acre data-center campus.
“I can’t discount the fact that it was a good messaging point, especially in this district,” she said.
Opposition to data centers likely helped Democrats flip 16 House seats and break the Republican supermajority at the Statehouse, according to Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, which advocates for a statewide moratorium on data centers.
“I don’t think there’s any question about it … data centers were certainly top of mind of people going to the polls, and I think that was reflected in the outcomes,” he said.
The losers
But some candidates who made data center opposition a cornerstone of their campaigns still lost their races.
Rep. Peggy Mayfield, R-Martinsville, easily defeated Democrat Carrie Syczylo, who strongly opposed the more than 350-acre Google data center campus under construction in Monrovia, where she lives. Syczylo called for more government transparency and accountability.
Democrat Ryan Price also campaigned hard against data centers and called for tighter regulations on the developments, but was handily defeated by incumbent Rep. Zach Payne, R-Charlestown. The southeast district is near Meta’s $800 million data center in Jeffersonville.
Higgs attributed those losses in part to straight-ticket voting in the deep-red districts. She said voters who didn’t live near a data center in those areas may not have paid much attention to the issue.
“People are busy living their lives,” she said. “They don’t know until suddenly something isn’t working or something is directly harming them.”
Similar stories played out in local races for county commissioners, who often have the final say on approving or denying data center developments in their areas.
Jason McClure, who ran as an independent opposing a data center ordinance in Miami County, said he lost in part due to straight-ticket voting, both from Democrats and Republicans. Still, he received 36% of the vote.
“To garner that much support from the community — I take that as people are anti-data center,” McClure said, noting the 19% of residents who voted for the Democratic candidate are also likely opposed to data centers.
“I think the data center fight and protections for the county would have been easier had I been elected, and I think there’s still a huge amount of support against data centers,” he said.
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FPI News reporter Carson Gerber covers pressing issues throughout the state and how local communities are tackling those challenges. Reach him at 756-204-4250 or carson.gerber@fpinews.org.
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