Greg Abbott Exposed for Election Year Flip-Flop on AI Data Centers [The Washington Post]
DALLAS, TX – Career politician Greg Abbott is seemingly only looking out for his own political survival and not the best interests of Texans when it comes to AI data centers, according to new reporting and analysis from The Washington Post.
“This shift from the Texas governor is not a one-off either. Abbott, seemingly realizing that being pro-data center and on the ballot this November was a recipe for disaster, has made questioning data centers central to his pitch to voters, despite his position less than a year ago,” The Post wrote.
The Post also noted how just 10 months ago, Abbott celebrated the invasion of data centers into Texas, pledging to make the state the “epicenter of AI development.”
“We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen,” Abbott said at the time.
One reason for Abbott’s election year flip flop? The Post credits Gina Hinojosa for using data centers to “lambast the governor on the campaign trail” and running ads hitting Abbott for “accepting over $20 million in campaign donations tied to data center executives.”
Read for yourself:
The Washington Post: “How have data center politics changed? Look at Texas’s Republican governor.”Analysis by Dan Merica | September 23, 2026
Just 10 months ago, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) celebrated Google’s planned $40 billion investment in Texas by calling the state the “epicenter of AI development.”
“We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen,” Abbott said.
On Monday, Abbott — facing a stronger-than-expected reelection challenge from Democrat Gina Hinojosa and a growing bipartisan backlash to data centers — directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to “halt all permits sought by data centers until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) completes its audit.”
It was an about-face on one of the midterm’s most defining issues, something that has fired up not only Abbott’s opponents on the left, but voters who have backed him for years.
This shift from the Texas governor is not a one-off, either. Abbott, seemingly realizing that being pro-data center and on the ballot this November was a recipe for disaster, has made questioning data centers central to his pitch to voters, despite his position less than a year ago.
One reason for Abbott’s flip is that Hinojosa has used data centers to lambast the governor on the campaign trail.
She has run ads on the topic, hitting Abbott for accepting over $20 million in campaign donations tied to data center executives.
She has attacked Abbott personally on the issue. “Greg Abbott has no credibility when it comes to reining in the data centers,” Hinojosa said. “The reason why they’re all here is because he invited them in with some of the richest tax breaks in this country.”
And she demanded the governor call an emergency special legislative session on data centers.
My colleague Molly Hennessy-Fiske has done some outstanding coverage on Texas and data centers all year, including this piece from rural Centerville that found longtime Republican voters who support free markets, the energy industry and small government are “setting aside those principles to battle an onslaught of data center projects that pro-business GOP leaders initially welcomed.”
Molly has also found that data centers have become a way for Democrats in Texas to make the election about class, affordability and working people.
“The discontent with data centers is being mobilized in service of an argument — in a campaign sense — that says the leaders of this state have been choosing the rich and tech over average Texans,” James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told her.
