The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape

One float stood out among the tinsel and holiday cheer at the annual Christmas parade in Sand Springs (OK): an unsightly data center with blinding industrial lights and smoke pouring out of its roof, towering menacingly over a helpless gingerbread house. Sand Springs, bordering Tulsa, is a battleground, one of many across the country, where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the artificial intelligence (AI) race with China are coming up against the reality of local politics. Sand Springs leaders were besieged with community anger after annexing an 827-acre agricultural property miles outside of town and launching into secret talks with a technology company looking to use it for a sprawling data center. Hundreds of aggrieved voters showed up at community meetings. Swarms of protest signs are taking root along the rural roads. “It feels like these data center companies have just put a big target on our backs,” said Kyle Schmidt, leader of the newly formed Protect Sand Springs Alliance. “We are all asking: Where are the people we elected who promised to protect us from these big corporations trying to steamroll us? The people who are supposed to be standing up and protecting us are standing down and caving.”