Voter anger over the cost of living is moving forward toward next year’s midterm elections, when pivotal contests will be decided by communities that are home to rapidly rising electricity bills or battles over who foots the bill to operate Big Tech companies’ power-hungry data centers.
Electricity costs were a major issue Governor’s elections this week In New Jersey and Virginia, a data center connection point, and in Georgiawhere Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents to gain seats on the state Utility Regulatory Commission.
Voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City were all cited Economic concerns As the most important issue, while Democrats and Republicans are preparing to discuss it Affordability In the intense midterm battle for control of Congress.
Indeed, President Donald Trump points this out He will focus on affordability next year While he and Republicans try to maintain their slim majority in Congress, Democrats blame Trump for rising household costs.
Leading the way may be electricity bills, which in many places are increasing faster than the U.S. inflation rate on average — but not everywhere.
“There’s a lot of pressure on politicians to talk about affordability, and electricity prices are now the most visible example of affordability problems,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of politics and government and a pollster at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Rising electricity costs are not expected to abate, and many Americans may see their monthly bills increase in the middle of next year’s campaigns.
Gas and electric utilities are seeking or have already secured more than $34 billion in rate increases in the first three quarters of 2025, consumer advocacy group Powerlines reported. This was more than double the same period last year.
With about 80 million Americans struggling to pay their utility bills, “it’s a life-or-death and ‘eat-or-heat’ type of decision that people have to make,” said Charles Hua, founder of Powerlines.
In Georgia, proposals to build data centers have alarmed communities, while the victorious Democrat, Peter Hubbard, accused Republicans of “rubber-stamping” price increases by Georgia Power, a subsidiary of energy giant Southern Co.
Georgia Energy’s monthly bills have risen sixfold over the past two years, now averaging $175 per month for a typical residential customer.
Hubbard’s message appears to have resonated with voters. Rebecca Mekonnen, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain, said she voted for the Democratic challengers and wants to see “more affordable prices. That’s the main thing. It lines my pocket right now.”
Now, Georgia Power is proposing to spend $15 billion to expand its power generation capacity, primarily to meet demand from data centers, and Hubbard wonders whether data centers will pay their fair share — or share it with regular ratepayers.
The midterm elections will feature congressional battlegrounds in states where rapidly rising electricity bills or hot data centers — or both — spark societal uprisings.
That includes ca, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Analysts attribute the rise in electricity bills to a combination of forces.
This includes expensive projects to modernize the grid and strengthen poles, wires and substations against extreme weather and wildfires.
Also plays a role Explosive demand From data centers, bitcoin miners, and a campaign to revive domestic manufacturing, as well as the rise Natural gas pricesAnalysts say.
“The cost of utility service is the new ‘cost nest egg’ concern for many consumers,” said Jennifer Bosco of the National Consumer Law Center.
In some places, data centers are driving a surge in demand, with a typical AI data center using as much electricity as 100,000 homes, according to the International Energy Agency. Some may need more electricity than cities of their size pittsburghcleveland or New Orleans.
While many countries have He sought to attract data centers As an economic boon, legislatures and utility commissions have also been inundated with proposals that could be tried To protect ordinary taxpayers From paying to connect data centers to the network.
Meanwhile, communities that don’t want to live next to one are retreating.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reconnaissance An October study found that electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for 36% of U.S. adults.
Now, as fall turns to winter, Some countries are warning Funding for heating assistance for low-income people has been delayed due to… Federal government shutdown.
However, the impact remains more variable than other financial stressors such as grocery costs, which just over half of U.S. adults said was a “major” source of stress.
Electricity prices vary widely by state or utility.
For example, federal data show that for-profit utilities raise interest rates much faster than municipally owned utilities or cooperatives.
In the 13-state Mid-Atlantic network from Illinois to New Jersey, analysts say taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for the cost of operating data centers — including data centers that haven’t been built yet.
Come June, electricity bills across that region will absorb billions of additional dollars in higher wholesale electricity costs designed to attract new power plants to power data centers.
This galvanized the region’s governors – including Pennsylvania Josh Shapiroillinois JB Pritzker And Maryland Wes MooreAll Democrats running for re-election – to pressure grid operator PJM Interconnection to contain the increases.
Drew Maloney, CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association for for-profit electric utilities, pointed to Democratic-leaning states as the reason behind higher electric bills.
“Electricity prices in red states are not rising at the same rate as in blue states,” Maloney said. “But data centers are largely moving to red states and rates remain stable.”
Pull some of those fast-rising rates — as in cawhere forest fires The U.S. is leading grid modernization, and New England, where natural gas is expensive, and the rest of the country largely follows electricity price inflation, Maloney said.
However, blue states are attracting data centers as well, and some red states are seeing higher electricity bills.
And in Indiana, a hotspot for growing data centers, the consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Alliance reported this year that residential customers at the state’s for-profit electric utilities were absorbing the steepest price increases in at least two decades.
Republican Governor Mike Brown criticized the increases, saying: “We can’t afford them anymore.”
___
Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.