The 2026 midterm elections in southcentral Kentucky netted major wins for critics of the data center industry. Local races in three cities featured successful campaigns centered around the issue, and officials are already eyeing new restrictions on the facilities.
The debate over large-scale data centers moved from city commission meetings and public hearings into recent local election campaigns across southcentral Kentucky.
Concerns about electricity and water use, environmental impacts, and public input helped shape contests in Bowling Green, Franklin, and Cave City.
Candidates who made those concerns part of their campaigns won key races, setting up new debates over how local governments should regulate the facilities and respond to proposed developments.
Bowling Green Commissioner-elect Tom Morris
The city commission of Kentucky’s third-largest city saw a shakeup that may change the fate of a twice-failed moratorium. The board now seems poised to revisit a temporary moratorium that commissioners rejected twice in June in separate 3-2 votes.
Newly elected Commissioner Tom Morris, who knocked out an anti-moratorium incumbent, says he intends to bring the issue back before the board.
In June, Commissioners Dana Beasley-Brown and Carlos Bailey supported a six-month pause on data center projects. Mayor Todd Alcott and commissioners Melinda Hill and Sue Parrigin opposed it.
The commission instead unanimously approved zoning regulations for potential projects. The regulations currently require data centers to include a 1,500-foot buffer from residential areas, limits on noise and emissions, closed-loop cooling requirements and provisions requiring developers to pay for utility upgrades.
Those regulations did not end many residents’ concerns about water and electricity use, noise, environmental effects and government transparency. Hill defended her vote at a candidate forum in October, saying she listened to residents and professionals before choosing what she called the best option.
“The city commission voted 5-0 with the strictest restrictions for data centers. We've already put those in place,” Hill said then. “They are so good, Gov. Beshear contacted (Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman) and our mayor, and he wanted to use them for the entire state. We are an example, not only for Kentucky, but the entire nation.”
Hill also noted that no specific data center project was under consideration in Bowling Green.
Parrigin, who did not attend that October forum, argued a moratorium could create legal problems and would not prevent a private company from selling an existing property to a data center.
The controversy became a focus for several campaigns, including one launched by Morris. He finished ahead of both Hill and Parrigin, ending the former’s 12-year stint on the board.
Following the results, Morris said he had campaigned on the issue from the beginning.
“I think that resonated with the people,” he said. He also described the position as popular across party lines, saying that “Republicans, Democrats and independents, many, many agreed with me” on a moratorium.
“I have committed to bringing the data center issue back up,” Morris said. “I think the people expect me to push for a moratorium.”
Morris said he intends to follow through on his campaign promise, but the proposal’s specifics have not yet been determined. The existing zoning rules remain in place unless commissioners change them.
Following the election, Warren County Democratic Party Chair Patti Minter said Beasley-Brown, Bailey and Morris had pledged to pass a moratorium within their first 30 days in office.
“Commissioner Dana Beasley-Brown, Commissioner Carlos Bailey and challenger Tom Morris have already said that they would propose and pass a data center moratorium in the first 30 days that they were all in office,” Minter said. “I think people can absolutely count on that.”
Minter also said the issue brought new people into local campaigning, including first-time volunteers, independents and some registered Republicans.
Morris and the returning commissioners will begin their new terms in January.
Franklin Mayor-elect Kelly Bush
After helping stall a proposed data center during his time as a city commissioner, Kelly Bush will now confront the project as Franklin’s next mayor.
Bush received 1,129 votes, narrowly defeating fellow commissioner Wendell Stewart. Prior to his win, Bush worked to slow the development of an incoming hyperscale data center.
An ordinance passed last year by the Simpson County Fiscal Court aimed to regulate facilities like data centers by requiring any developer to have a difficult-to-obtain conditional use permit.
A legal battle over the ordinance quickly ensued, filed by data center developer TenKey LandCo, arguing that the county does not have the authority to make an ordinance affecting zoning with the city limits of Franklin. The legal proceedings are still pending.
Bush was a key supporter of the ordinance and ran his campaign partially on his opposition to data center development. He said the best route is to keep planning and zoning decisions at the county level.
“If we put it back with the county and we do it the right way from the beginning, it solves a lot of problems for us,” Bush said. “We can put greater restrictions going forward so that these issues don’t happen.”
Bush said he’s worked in the technology sector for 25 years, with most of his work surrounding mergers, acquisitions, and IT systems. Bush said traditional data centers, which first popped up in the 1990s and early 2000s, rely heavily on something called “data at rest” — inactive information being stored on physical media like hard drives.
In contrast, data housed in a hyperscale facility is constantly in use, increasing overall costs.
“A hyperscale data center is different than the Nissan data center I helped move from California to Kentucky,” Bush said. “There is data at rest in that traditional data center, but in a hyperscale data center, there’s very little data at rest, if any. They’re trying to use definitions to get around some of these zoning issues. To me, I think it's predatory.”
Cave City Mayor-elect Clifton Parsley
Clifton Parsley won the race for Cave City mayor over incumbent Dwayne Hatcher.
Parsley said much of the support he received was due to his opposition to hyperscale data centers in the Barren County town. He said residents are concerned about the impacts of this type of industrial development.
“It’s a big fear for everybody,” Parsley said. “We don’t know how big the monster is going to be.”
Kentucky Industrial Alliance, Inc. filed an application in May to build a hyperscale data center that would use up to 1.2 gigawatts of power. A continuous 1.2-gigawatts electricity supply could meet the average annual electricity needs of over 900,000 U.S. homes, based on U.S. Energy Information Administration benchmarks.
After the application, the city council quickly passed a one-year moratorium on any new data center in a 4-1 vote. That decision was opposed by Mayor Hatcher.
The developer responded with a lawsuit targeting the city, arguing procedural errors made the ordinance unlawful. That litigation is still pending.
Parsley said his biggest concern with the proposed project is the lack of communication and information they have about its potential impacts.
“There’s not a lot of information on data centers out there,” Parsley said. “I wish the people that were wanting to put the data center in would come and talk to us, and we’re not getting that response from them.”
Parsley said the moratorium is the best option available because it gives city and county officials time to better understand and prepare for a data center.
That doesn’t mean Cave City is closed for business, Parsley said. He stressed that having a moratorium isn’t an attack on companies looking to operate in Barren County.
“We welcome businesses. We love small businesses, we love medium and large size businesses, but we’re just unprepared for something of this scale, and there’s a lot of unknowns from it,” Parsley said. “It shouldn’t discourage people that would want to come in and put a business (in Cave City).”
