PAXTON DATA CENTER DISASTER: Paxton Called Out For Refusing To Act On Data Centers As AG And Trying To Cover Up History With AI-Generated Plan

Houston Chronicle: “Can counties stop data centers? Ken Paxton won’t say.”

AUSTIN, TX — Corrupt Ken Paxton tried to cover up that he has taken no actions as the sitting Attorney General to stop Texas from being flooded by unregulated data centers and was promptly called out on front pages across Texas’s major newspapers from San Antonio to Dallas to Houston to Austin. 

New reporting in the Houston Chronicle detailed how Paxton has been “silent on one of the biggest questions fueling the data center debate in Texas,” as counties press the Attorney General for legal opinions on their rights to protect residents from spiking utility costs. Paxton missed the 180-day deadline, and “six months later,” still hasn’t responded, trying to cover up his inaction yesterday with a weak AI generated plan. One impacted attorney in Hood County said of Paxton, “I predicted long ago that I wouldn't hear back until after the election in November.” 

Paxton has been under fire from Texans for his ties to the data center industry after an investigation revealed his campaign contributions from data center interests have “exploded” to nearly $448,000. Paxton was one of the architects of helping flood Texas with data centers, voting for the 2013 law that gave data centers a multi-billion dollar tax handout costing taxpayers over $3.3 billion and growing.

Read more for yourself:

Houston Chronicle: Can counties stop data centers? Ken Paxton won’t say.

August 24, 2026

By Benjamin Wermund

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has called data centers a “complicated issue” that should be decided “by local communities.” 

• But when two rural counties asked his office early this year if they could halt local data center construction, it was not quick to weigh in. Six months later, it still hasn’t.

• The attorney general’s office had 180 days to issue a legal opinion or delay the matter, according to state law. The office wrote to Hood County Attorney Matt Mills on Monday notifying him it would "need more time to review the law, complete our analysis, and finalize the opinion."

• “I predicted long ago that I wouldn't hear back until after the election in November,” Mills said.

• Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, on Monday rolled out a campaign proposal that endorses new rules on where data centers can be built and calls for prohibiting Chinese technology from being used in them. He is the latest candidate to wade into the data center fracas, joining other GOP candidates who have sought to quell a brewing backlash among rural voters.

• But Paxton's plan is silent on one of the biggest questions fueling the data center debate in Texas, the ability that counties have to do anything about the centers cropping up across the state. Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has called for them to be given the power to keep data centers out.

• The data center debate is particularly tricky for Paxton, who is caught between angry rural Republican voters and President Donald Trump, who has called opposition to data centers in Texas a “mistake” and whose support Paxton is relying on as he seeks the Senate seat. 

• “I think they are tremendously important for the economics,” Trump said. “This is, for Texas to say no to data centers, is a mistake — in the sense that it could be bigger than oil. Data centers could be bigger than oil.” 

• Talarico had hammered him for staying relatively quiet on the issue before Monday. The Austin Democrat last month rolled out a data center proposal that also calls for repealing tax breaks and requiring data centers to reuse water.

• Talarico, however, has also said he wants to “empower local communities to decide whether they want a data center in their town.” 

• Under current state law, counties do not have zoning authority. Some anti-data center advocates now say they should so that local leaders have more power to dictate where the centers can and cannot build. 

• Talarico has pointed to hundreds of thousands in campaign donations Paxton has reportedly taken from the industry as he seeks to capitalize on the angst among rural voters.

• “Ken Paxton, the most corrupt politician in our state, has taken nearly half a million dollars from the data center industry,” Talarico said during a campaign stop in Abilene this month. “That explains why as attorney general, he didn't help the residents of Hood County when they were seeking his support in stopping the data center construction in their community.”

• Paxton had received at least $448,000 from executives and political committees of companies building, operating and investing in data centers as of June, according to reporting by NOTUS.

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