Midterm elections 2026: all the news – The Verge

Prop 45 in California could be hiding a loophole for data centers

2026-11-02T08:55:18-05:00

A high-stakes California ballot measure pitched as a fast track for "essential" infrastructure could wind up giving data center developers a loophole to evade public scrutiny, environmental advocates warn.

Proposition 45 would shorten timelines for state-mandated environmental assessments for eligible projects and make it more difficult for residents to challenge those projects in court. Proponents say passing the measure would help alleviate the state's housing shortage and meet rising electricity demand with new renewable energy projects. Environmental groups and some legal experts, however, warn that data center developers backing the pr …

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Voters in Texas agree: They hate data centers

2026-11-02T08:55:44-05:00

Ask Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe what it's been like to see data center developers descend upon Austin and its surrounding suburbs and he can rattle off project after project facing opposition from locals.

There's the fight in Taylor over plans to build a data center at a site that's supposed to be a park. Temple, around 40 miles away, is another sore spot, Bledsoe says. The mayor and City Council members there face recall attempts over data center developments. And some 30 miles outside of Austin, San Marcos became the first city in all of Texas to ban data centers.

Nowhere in the world are data centers growing more explosively than …

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Data center backlash is uniting America

2026-11-03T12:25:15-05:00

If there's one issue that seems to activate all kinds of voters in 2026, it's data centers. The rapid buildout of these massive server storage facilities - and the infrastructure construction and expenses that come with them - has sparked local opposition in communities across the country and become a major issue in many congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.

At the same time, tech money has been pouring into many of these races. Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, has already spent $45 million in a year. And Public First Action, an Anthropic-backed group that …

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Republican politicians have embraced anti-Indian racism — and it’s costing them votes

2026-10-22T15:05:22-04:00

Two years ago, University of Houston student Vasant Bhatt was doing everything he could to help Republicans regain power. He knocked doors for Sen. Ted Cruz's reelection campaign and helped organize his community for Donald Trump, two victories he, like many other Republicans, celebrated in 2024. But this week, Bhatt did something unexpected: He voted for Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, and he publicly urged others to do the same.

Bhatt, whose father is a small-business owner, tells The Verge he was initially drawn to the Republican Party due to its economic principles. "The strong belief in individual liberty and limited …

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Trump is giving Nick Shirley $10,000 and launching a $25 million fraud bounty program

2026-10-20T18:20:11-04:00

Influencer Nick Shirley listens as US President Donald Trump makes an announcement on fraud in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 20, 2026. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was giving right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley $10,000 and launching a $25 million bounty program for members of the public to report fraud.

In December 2025, Shirley published a viral video alleging fraud at daycares in Minnesota that were operated by members of the local Somali community. Shirley lingered in parking lots and asked to enter childcare centers, taking refusals as evidence that the centers weren't actually caring for children. The video quickly went viral, triggering a massive governmental response: Federal immigration agents descended on the …

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Democrats think cracking down on AI could give them an edge

2026-10-19T08:37:05-04:00

Democrats could win back control of Congress this November, and if they do, they'll need to decide how to approach one of the country's newest and thorniest political issues: AI.

Polls predict Democrats will flip at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm elections, which would put committee leadership back in their hands. That could usher in a wave of newfound scrutiny for AI companies. Top Democrats on key committees have already signaled their willingness to press the industry on tax credits tied to data centers and recent hacking incidents, and would be able to set committee agendas if they take over, allowing them to call CEOs to …

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Elon Musk has donated over $276 million to Republican midterm efforts

2026-10-12T12:52:54-04:00

So much for doing less political spending. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Elon Musk has handed out at least $276 million to Republican groups since July, The New York Times reports, making him both the party's top known donor and the biggest established midterm donor. $158 million of that money - one of the largest political donations in American history - has been funneled into the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC that aims to secure and maintain a Republican Senate majority. Among others, it's fighting to retain the party's Senate seat in Texas, which serves as a major hub for Musk's business empire.

He's also donated over $76 million to America PAC, a super PAC Musk founded in 2024 that canvasses for …

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The midterms are going to be a data security nightmare

2026-06-18T10:49:51-04:00

One messy database is threatening to disenfranchise thousands or even millions of registered voters, while leaving even more at risk of intimidation or data breaches, in the name of solving a problem that barely exists.

As the 2026 midterm elections approach, election and privacy experts are sounding alarms about the Department of Homeland Security's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program, which President Donald Trump's administration has expanded to ostensibly catch noncitizens voting. Experts say that amounts to a dangerous, error-prone effort to centralize voter data. "The federal government doesn't have the author …

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Democrats preview how they’d go after the Ticketmaster settlement if they regain power

2026-05-19T16:13:14-04:00

A handful of Democrats called an unofficial hearing on Capitol Hill Monday to slam the Department of Justice's "trivial" and "pathetic" settlement with Live Nation-Ticketmaster, previewing how they might go after Trump administration antitrust deals if they win back congressional power in November.

While the DOJ settlement with Live Nation, which came one week into trial and with a promise of up to $280 million, received copious pushback, Democrats don't at the moment have the power in either chamber to set committee agendas. That meant that Monday's so-called shadow hearing looked different than most official proceedings. Instead of sitti …

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AI backlash is coming for elections

2026-04-21T15:00:05-04:00

Ask Americans how they feel about AI and most say they have concerns. Communities have mounted resistance to data center projects, stalling them across the US. On social media, anger at AI companies and executives is unrestrained - sometimes to the point of condoning violence.

But look at the issues that most campaigns are focused on, and AI is far less prevalent, experts say.

More than 60 percent of both Republicans and Democrats polled by Ipsos earlier this year agree that the government should regulate AI for economic stability and public safety, and that the technology's development should slow down. Still, "when you just ask folks, 'w …

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