How Big Tech and Data Center Backlash is Splitting Florida’s Conservative Base in a Tight Gubernatorial Race

Patti Zirhut has spent weeks meticulously studying her ballot, a stark departure from the routine voting habits of her lifetime as a dedicated Republican. While Zirhut eagerly cast her ballot for Donald Trump in the presidential elections of 2016, 2020, and 2024, she is breaking rank for the upcoming state-level election. Describing her voting choices as entirely mixed up, Zirhut is splitting her ticket among Republicans, independents, and even a few Democrats. Though she remains undecided on a handful of down-ballot contests, her stance on the state’s highest executive office is unwavering. “I will not vote for Byron Donalds,” she says emphatically. “No way will I ever vote for him.”

Donalds, the Republican nominee in Florida’s fiercely contested gubernatorial election, enters the final stretch of the campaign with formidable advantages. He carries the endorsement of Donald Trump, the official backing of the state party, and a staggering $148 million war chest fueled largely by contributions from the tech industry. For Zirhut, however, that massive influx of tech money is precisely the problem. As an organizer with No Data Center Hernando County—a grassroots advocacy group dedicated to opposing the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure—Zirhut is deeply unsettled by Donalds’ vocal support for controversial tech developments. Her localized grievance has evolved into a statewide voting issue, threatening to siphon critical votes away from the Republican nominee, even from within his own party base.

The friction between traditional Republican loyalties and localized environmental concerns first surfaced at a small, rural protest in Spring Hill, Florida, where Zirhut and other community members gathered to voice their alarm. At the time, Donalds was navigating a crowded Republican primary field as the front-runner, and Zirhut made it clear that a primary victory would not automatically secure her vote in the general election. Now, with Donalds serving as the official party nominee in a race tracking far closer than initial projections suggested, Zirhut is standing by her pledge. Expressing widespread voter fatigue, she notes that she is thoroughly disgusted by the state of modern politics and is actively considering casting her ballot for Donalds’ Democratic opponent, former Republican U.S. Representative David Jolly.

Jolly, who left the Republican Party in 2018, is deliberately positioning his campaign to capture newly alienated conservatives like Zirhut, banking on the polarizing nature of the data center debate to bridge the political divide. According to Jolly, the grassroots resistance to massive digital infrastructure projects resonates more deeply among conservative voters than progressive ones in Florida. He argues that this backlash serves as a direct reflection of anxieties regarding the disproportionate influence wielded by Big Tech and Big Data. In an era defined by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and corporate encroachment on private land, voters are increasingly worried about surveillance, environmental disruption, and the preservation of personal freedom.

The policy contrasts between the two major candidates regarding data center development could hardly be more pronounced. Jolly has personally traveled to Loudoun County, Virginia—widely recognized across the country as Data Center Alley—to observe firsthand the long-term community impacts of massive hyperscale facilities. In stark contrast, Donalds has frequently articulated a vision centered on economic expansion, stating his goal to make Florida the financial capital of the world. While Jolly has pledged to enact an immediate, one-year moratorium on new data center developments, Donalds has embraced the tech industry’s expansion into the state. During a campaign stop in August, Donalds dismissed the viability of moratoriums, remarking that bans were not coming despite their appeal on television and social media. In the wake of intense pushback, Donalds has since moderated his rhetoric, attempting to pivot toward the roughly 68 percent of Floridians who indicate strong opposition to data centers within their local communities.

Jolly views this widespread public resistance as a rare political alignment where candidates are forced to both lead and follow public sentiment. Pointing to polling figures showing that upwards of two-thirds of the state rejects the expansion of these facilities, Jolly argues that the primary duty of elected officials is to listen rather than dismiss voter concerns, while simultaneously addressing the legitimate policy challenges involved.

Among those challenges, Jolly highlights a litany of adverse effects that warrant a mandatory pause or a complete halt to data center construction in Florida. These include escalating air and noise pollution, potential public health consequences for residents living in proximity to the on-site power plants required to run the massive servers, and severe environmental strains, particularly regarding heavy water usage. While acknowledging that modern closed-loop air cooling systems mitigate some water consumption issues, he also points out the staggering speed of artificial intelligence advancement. Because AI technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, facilities engineered today run a high risk of becoming functionally obsolete within a decade.

Donalds’ campaign pushes back by emphasizing that his running mate, state Senator Bryan Ávila, sponsored comprehensive legislation designed to regulate new data center projects and ensure they bear their fair share of water and electricity costs. Furthermore, Donalds has maintained that zoning approvals and infrastructure developments fall outside the direct purview of the governor’s office. In recent media appearances, he emphasized that local governments retain ultimate authority over land use decisions, noting that governors do not issue building permits and that if a local community rejects a facility, no data center will be built. Nevertheless, Jolly has successfully pinned his opponent with the moniker "Data Center Donalds" to crystallize their ideological differences. The Donalds campaign did not respond to requests for comment regarding the nickname or the broader controversy.

The political fallout extends beyond individual voters like Zirhut to organized local opposition groups across the state. Raul Alfonso, chair of Watchdogs of Fort Meade, has been actively fighting a proposed $2.6 billion hyperscale data center project located in deeply conservative Polk County. Earlier in the election cycle, Alfonso’s organization reached out to gubernatorial candidates seeking formal commitments on the issue. The group received standardized responses from both Donalds and current Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, echoing the sentiment that local city commissioners and municipal representatives must be trusted to make the appropriate decisions.

While Jolly’s campaign did not directly reply to the Fort Meade group, Alfonso noted that the omission was inconsequential given Jolly’s public promise to enforce a moratorium. Other candidates, including controversial Republican primary contender James Fishback—who captured 10 percent of the primary vote—and minor primary candidate Bobby Williams, engaged more directly with local constituents. Angie Nixon, a Democratic lawmaker running to unseat U.S. Senator Ashley Moody, even hosted a town hall in Fort Meade to discuss community resistance to the infrastructure projects. For Alfonso, the defining metric of leadership is a candidate’s willingness to listen to grassroots concerns, noting that figures from across the political spectrum have shown more engagement on the issue than Donalds.

Alfonso observes a notable trend of traditionally staunch, party-line conservative voters willing to cross political boundaries to support candidates who treat citizen concerns with gravity. Although Alfonso’s own voting history leans conservative—having backed Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024—he was a registered independent until switching his affiliation shortly before the primary to support Williams.

Williams, a local pastor who launched his first political campaign during the primary, has since formally endorsed Jolly. Reflecting on the Republican primary, Williams argues that the party establishment anointed Donalds from the outset, enabling corporate interests to heavily influence high-level political offices. For Williams, data center developers represent the latest wave of external forces seeking to shape Florida’s future without regard for its residents.

Should Jolly secure a victory, he would become the first Democratic governor elected in Florida in nearly three decades. Recent polling indicates a remarkably tight race; a survey conducted by the University of North Florida places Jolly merely two points behind Donalds, safely inside the poll’s 2.8 percent margin of error. Donalds retains substantial structural advantages, most notably in campaign fundraising, where he has amassed $148 million compared to Jolly’s $22 million. Additionally, Florida’s voter registration landscape has shifted dramatically over the years, transforming a classic swing state into one where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly two million, a demographic shift accelerated by Governor DeSantis’s pandemic-era policies. Early voting data showing Republicans outpacing Democrats suggests an uphill battle for any Democratic statewide bid.

Yet, pockets of conservative resistance remain wary of Donalds’ financial ties to the tech sector, including a $5 million contribution from Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC backed by executives from OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz. While data centers do not rank as the single overriding issue for every voter—with cost-of-living concerns consistently dominating statewide and national election polling—Jolly argues that the fierce localized backlash against digital infrastructure serves as a broader proxy for deep-seated public anxieties.

According to Jolly, the controversy acts as a physical manifestation of voter worries regarding the future of employment, wage stagnation, personal security, and privacy. He contends that the unprecedented sums of money flowing into the gubernatorial race are emblematic of a broader economic inequality in a state grappling with an escalating cost of living. In an environment dominated by unlimited campaign spending, ordinary citizens increasingly feel stripped of their political and economic voice, leaving major decision-making apparatuses vulnerable to capture by the best-funded special interests in tech, data, and utilities.