Aerial view of the Decker Creek Power Plant in Austin, Texas on July 28, 2026.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
During a brainstorming session earlier this summer, a group of comedians and employees of beverage company Liquid Death considered an idea for a bold new advertising campaign that would humorously reveal how much water is needed to run a massive artificial intelligence data center.
“The idea was what if we used urine instead of water to cool data centers,” Andy Pearson, Liquid Death’s vice president of creative, said in an interview with CNBC.
This wild idea became a 90-second video produced in collaboration with Garage Beer, owned by husband-and-wife team Jason and Travis Kelsey. The clip promises to “send your pee to an AI data center of your choice.”
Liquid Death and Garage Beer posted videos Tuesday, the same day Florida voters headed to the polls in the gubernatorial primary, with leading Republican candidates focusing on data centers as a central issue. Congressman Byron Donald, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Governor Ron DeSantis, won easily and will move on to the general election in November.
Last month, Donald introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act, which aims to “ensure that private developers, rather than U.S. taxpayers, bear the investment costs of developing data centers that advance our nation’s technological advantage,” according to the release. However, Donald received significant funding from AI PACs such as Leading the Future.
The Marc Andreessen-backed organization celebrated Donald’s victory after his victory, saying it “understands that emerging technologies like AI will play a critical role in advancing its priorities.”
Congressman Byron Donald, Republican and gubernatorial candidate from Florida, during a “Get Out The Vote” rally ahead of the primary election in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, on Sunday, August 16, 2026.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images
AI data centers, large facilities that house the hardware for training and running AI models, are opening across the country, with more on the way if the big AI companies and hyperscalers have their way. But with less than three months until the midterm elections and Americans struggling with rising food prices and persistently high prices, data centers have become a physical manifestation of widespread resentment against AI, which consumers associate with higher electricity bills and job losses.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) warned on Tuesday that data centers have become a “key issue” throughout the midterm election period, according to a memo obtained by CNBC. Democrats currently lead the popular vote by 6.4 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics polling average.
Pearson said that while Liquid Death tries to “stay away from politics,” so many people are talking about AI and data centers that it has become a “pretty universal topic.” More than half of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the growing use of technology in their daily lives, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. This is up from 37% in 2021.
“You literally can’t turn on the TV or radio without hearing about it,” Pearson said. “This is really an issue that brings people together across the political and cultural spectrum.”
The satirical video, which Pearson helped create, features former NFL star Jason Kelce holding a bottle of urine and walking through a field toward a data center while singing, “We want your pee, give us your pee. Let’s pee on computers together to save humanity.”
“The industry will be blamed.”
In the NRSC memo, the commission wrote that data centers have become a centerpiece of the Ohio Senate race, with Democratic candidate and former Sen. Sherrod Brown making opposition to data centers a “centerpiece” of his campaign against Republican incumbent Jon Husted.
Ohio has several large data center projects, including a massive 10 gigawatt campus in Pike County that could cost more than $500 billion, as CNBC previously reported. OpenAI announced Monday that it has agreed to secure 8 gigawatts of that capacity, backed by a $105 billion commitment from the United States. Nvidia.
Ten gigawatts is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 8 million U.S. homes, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration.
“If voter perceptions of data centers are not corrected soon, opposition to data centers will spread far beyond Ohio,” the NRSC wrote in the memo, which was first reported by Axios.
If Husted were to lose because of Data Center, it would be an “industry indictment” and both sides would take note, the committee wrote. The race in Ohio is crucial for Republicans, who maintain a slim majority in the Senate.
President Trump acknowledged Wednesday that the data center “could use some public relations help,” but that the community should welcome it.
“I absolutely want that, because the work is huge and the money and taxes that will be paid are huge,” the president said.
But the big new problem for the tech industry is that voters in both parties disagree. Politicians are responding to their anger.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential bid, signed an executive order Tuesday that imposes strict standards on data center development in the state.
The order requires data center developers to pay for all new power generation, transmission, distribution, and other infrastructure required for their projects. Developers must also strive to engage openly and transparently with local stakeholders, hire and train local workers, enter into “community benefits agreements” and adhere to strict water and environmental standards.
Shapiro, who has previously welcomed data center projects, said he signed the order after hearing from “many residents across the commonwealth who are concerned about how data center development will impact their communities, the environment, and their utility bills.”
Mr. Shapiro’s Republican opponent in this year’s election, state Treasurer Stacey Garrity, also made data centers a campaign issue, criticizing Mr. Shapiro’s past positions and calling for a moratorium on further development.
Mr. Garrity’s campaign website includes a link to “Donate with Cryptocurrency,” accusing Mr. Shapiro of opening “the doors to Pennsylvania’s data centers” and “donating state taxes and resources to companies on the other side of the country.”
CNBC reported in April that Pennsylvania’s data center boom could endanger the state’s Republican incumbents.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of Texas Instruments (TI)’s new semiconductor wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, USA, Wednesday, December 17, 2025.
Desiree Rios | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The mood has decisively changed in Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has championed data centers in the past. Abbott is currently competing to standardize data centers in the state after Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa criticized his initial support for the facilities.
Hinojosa told CNBC on Wednesday that Abbott “is doing the bidding of his moneyed interests, not the people of Texas.” Hinojosa is calling for a moratorium on data centers until Congress meets and puts guardrails around data centers.
In June, Mr. Abbott issued a directive requiring businesses to pay for power infrastructure upgrades, reuse their own water and reduce electricity bills. On Tuesday, the governor announced in a press release that many businesses had agreed to his standards.
industry promise
AI companies are keenly aware of the harsh outlook on data centers, and some have vowed to assure Americans that what they build will benefit the country.
In January, microsoft We published a blog post outlining “the concrete steps we need to take to be good neighbors in the communities we build.” A few days later, OpenAI has made a similar pledge, pledging to pay for its own energy bills while minimizing water use and investing in local jobs and workforce pathways.
“We believe that AI infrastructure is essential to America’s competitiveness and economic opportunity, while revitalizing local economies by creating jobs and bringing local income,” OpenAI said in a release at the time.
Lawmakers are unmoved.
In July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the nation’s first executive order imposing a one-year moratorium on large data centers, effectively halting the development of new facilities in the state. Hochul said he will use the time to develop a regulatory framework that better protects New York’s environment, ratepayers, energy grid and communities.
President Trump attacked the moratorium in a post on Truth Social, writing that states should change their policies “immediately.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei acknowledged the negative public opinion surrounding AI in a post on X on Saturday. He suggested it stems from a fundamental “crisis of trust” in the technology industry.
“I think the public doesn’t trust businesses, governments, and the technology industry, and they’re always suspicious that we’re inventing some new way to screw them over,” Amodei wrote. “The causes of this go back decades, and AI is just the latest iteration of it.”
WATCH: ‘Texans are angry and fed up’: Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa supports building more data centers
