{"id":479807,"date":"2026-10-28T23:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T23:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479807\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T23:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T23:50:08","slug":"montgomery-county-voters-weigh-in-on-texas-data-center-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479807\/","title":{"rendered":"Montgomery County voters weigh in on Texas data center boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Texas is becoming a hot spot for data centers. The Lone Star State is home to more than 300 data centers, according to ENOUGH previous reporting<\/a>, with several proposed in Montgomery County. <\/p>\n

As Election Day approaches, some voters are questioning how the rapid growth of the industry could affect their daily lives \u2014 and their ballots.<\/p>\n

Data centers help power everything from artificial intelligence to the apps people use every day. They require enormous amounts of electricity and often water to keep machines running.<\/p>\n

For some Montgomery County residents, the connection between data centers and everyday life isn\u2019t immediately clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may or may not affect day to day, but honestly I don\u2019t have enough research behind it to connect with what I\u2019m dealing with on a day to day basis as far as what I\u2019m spending money on,\u201d said Ashley Morgan, a voter in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

A new University of Houston survey shows many Texas voters are questioning whether the benefits of data centers are worth the cost.<\/p>\n

Jobs, growth, concerns over who pays the bill<\/p>\n

Not everyone sees the issue the same way. For those in industries tied to the real estate and development boom, data centers represent economic opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in commercial real estate, so we got several deals just in our small office in The Woodlands that we\u2019re working that, you know, are data center related,\u201d said John Hornbuckle, a voter in Montgomery County. \u201cI think it is bringing a lot of good paying jobs to Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, however, are concerned about who shoulders the financial burden when large corporations move in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the local people around the data centers are the ones paying the bill instead of the people that actually own these data centers,\u201d said Jerry Lazo, a voter in Montgomery County. \u201cI just don\u2019t want any of my bills to go up more from where they are already at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron Welsh, another Montgomery County voter, takes a more pragmatic view.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts are that data centers are coming. They are not going anywhere, we are going to live with it,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n

Voters call for limits, oversight<\/p>\n

According to the University of Houston\u2019s Hobby School survey, 79% of Texas voters want limits on how many data centers can be built in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s something that should be voter approved,\u201d said Michelle Baker, a voter in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

Some residents put the issue in even starker terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rather have water than artificial intelligence,\u201d said Teawana, a voter in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n

No matter which side of the debate voters fall on, this election could help shape Texas\u2019 future on the data center issue.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Texas is becoming a hot spot for data centers. The Lone Star State is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5304,6288,409,7054,287,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-479807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-data-centers","tag-decision-2026","tag-election","tag-montgomery-county","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}