Texas Governor-Elect Says She Plans Laws to Protect Residents Affected by Data Centers

Gina Hinojosa, elected this week as Texas’s next governor, said the state will introduce laws to shield residents from the effects of data centers.

“We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections,” Governor-elect Hinojosa, a Democrat, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview on Thursday.

One of Hinojosa’s campaign promises was a moratorium on new data center projects.

On Thursday, she said new data centers should proceed only if communities have a “seat at the table” in how they are run.

Hinojosa Offers Communities ‘Leverage’

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“Those communities have to be able to walk away from the table to leverage what they need for their communities,” Hinojosa said.

With reliable energy supplies, low taxes, and cheap land—compared to competitors like California and Virginia—Texas has become a leader in the data center industry. But Hinojosa could change all that.

In Thursday’s interview, Tapper asked Hinojosa about the stock market’s reaction.

“Your victory is one that we’re told AI investors are worried about given your promises of a temporary data center moratorium,” Tapper said, and asked how she would balance the economic consequences with voters’ apparent opposition to data centers.

“We have always been a pro-business state in Texas, but what changes now with me as governor is it has to be a partnership that benefits Texans,” Hinojosa said.

“Data centers have moved into mostly rural communities, and there are no rules and laws to protect Texans.

“We can have a strong economy, strong industry, and protections for the people of Texas. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and I’ll make sure as governor I lead to ensure that that happens.”

Trump Administration Backing Data Centers

The Trump administration has strongly backed data center expansion as a national priority, but new data centers, needed to fuel AI growth, have become politically controversial in some areas because of the electricity and water they consume.

“If companies want to make their Data Centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a ‘dividend,’” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Oct. 21.

OpenAI, in a report published in June, has also accused CCP influence operators of jumping on the data center bandwagon.

Musk said in March he planned to start a microchip plant in Austin, Texas.

Last month, Texas Monthly also reported that the state’s parks and wildlife commission was considering selling Boca Chica State Park to SpaceX.

Hinojosa said during a news conference on Thursday that she had spoken to the executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission “to request that no action be taken” on Boca Chica State Park during the transition period.

Hinojosa is set to be sworn in as governor on Jan. 19, 2027.

The Epoch Times reached out to SpaceX for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.