In a midterm election punctuated by America’s overwhelming distaste for data centers, one small town in North Dakota has bucked the trend.

Of the 45 ballot measures on data centers this past election, only one went the pro-data center way, according to data from Redbud Consulting. That initiative belonged to Harwood, a North Dakota town 10 miles from Fargo and home to about 940 people, which overwhelmingly voted against a ballot measure that would place limitations on large-scale industrial developments such as data centers. About 75% (325) of the 430 votes cast on Tuesday opposed the measure.

Data centers were a major flashpoint of the midterm elections. With a new wave of moratoriums and restrictions, AI companies like OpenAI are scrambling to rebrand the buildout and market construction alongside promises of perks and community benefits to woo both local governments and residents.

The Harwood initiative proposed an amendment to the town’s Home Rule Charter that would impose requirements limiting how the city evaluates, approves, and administers development or building projects, such as requiring independent reviews and holding public hearings for industrial projects.

The measure was introduced following the ground-breaking of a 160-acre data center in Harwood, which Applied Digital Corp. was overseeing with Oracle as the end-user. The project was scheduled to be fully operational next year, and could possibly expand to 900 acres.

Michael Swartz, a senior software developer who’s lived in Harwood for nearly 20 years, said the town’s relationship with data centers perhaps isn’t as cut-and-dry as the election results suggest. 

“Long term, there’s some really serious implications that I don’t think have been fully fleshed-out, or vetted, or even are getting talked about, at the scale that I think they need to be addressed,” Swartz told Fortune.

As the champion behind the ballot measure and the year-long fight against campus’s continued construction, Swartz believes the local data center expansion has the potential to harm the area, and that efforts to push the initiative were hampered by local authorities.

Harwood’s data center battle

Harwood residents only learned about the data center construction about three weeks before construction for the data center began in Sept. 2025, according to Swartz. At the time, the Fargo Forum reported that then-Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney and Harwood Mayor Blake Hankey both signed nondisclosure agreements with Applied Digital Corp. in July.

“When all of this came about, it was like being hit between the eyes with a sledgehammer,” Swartz’s wife Amanda told Fortune. “People deserve a say in projects of this scope.”

Nick Phillips, the executive vice president of external affairs at Applied Digital Corp., told Fortune the developer chose Harwood for its cooler climate and access to energy, as well as its “pro-business landscape and the ability to have a positive impact on the community, from job creation to economic benefits.”

“While our projects may seem fast to get going, they also involve an incredibly large amount of community conversations through both legally required as well as company-led events,” Phillips said in a statement. “We work very hard to provide a large amount of opportunities to learn about our potential projects before they are built including through town halls, one-on-one meetings, public forums, well above and beyond the public meeting requirements that exist.”

Swartz had concerns about the project, in particular, the levels of noise pollution associated with data centers, given the location of an elementary school within a mile or so of the campus. After a city council meeting—in which Swartz claims he wasn’t allowed to speak—he got in touch with other residents, with whom he formed the grassroots advocacy group Voices of Harwood and by January, had drafted a Home Rule Charter amendment, what they saw as a stronger measure than an ordinance, which can be changed by city council members. In August this year, the petition to get the measure on the ballot received 91 signatures, more than twice the mandatory 40, in just three days, Swartz said.

Then came the challenges. Swartz said in September, the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce began disseminating anti-measure materials following Swartz’s distribution of a mailer that he paid for himself. Some of the materials, viewed by Fortune, claimed the passage of the measure would cost taxpayers an additional $300,000 to $544,000, and increase annual taxes due to lost projects by thousands of dollars.

Cale Dunwoody, vice president for public policy for the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, told Fortune in a statement that the body “worked closely with Harwood residents and businesses to provide voters with accurate information about the proposed amendment to the city’s home rule charter.”

Town officials, including Mayor Hankey, publicly opposed the measure, arguing the amendment would place an additional administrative burden on the town and set a precedent of requiring public votes for every town issue. Other officials like City Councilman Chris Higgins feared the measure would cause Applied Digital Corp. to de-annex the project, triggering a loss of tax benefits. Hankey said the data center would bring in $1.65 million in taxes by 2028. A North Dakota tax incentive would give Applied Digital Corp. a break from the state’s 5% sales tax on computers, cooling systems, and servers.

Swartz was also troubled by the language of the measure which eventually made it to the ballot, which he said differed significantly from what Voices of Harwood presented to the election committee, making it harder for voters to understand what the initiative was about.

“Had I not been involved with it, and had I not done my due diligence as a voter and read what Measure 2 was about, and I only was basing my decision on that summary, there’s no way I would have voted yes,” Swartz said.

A representative for Harwood City Council forwarded Fortune’s inquiry to the Mayor’s office. Hankey did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.

Why did Harwood oppose the measure?

While Swartz was frustrated by how officials and stakeholders worked to oppose the measure, he attributed the failure to the same reason why many other data centers have faced roadblocks, and why Democrats saw an overwhelming victory on election night: affordability. 

Pew Research Center found half of Americans said data centers would have a negative impact on their energy costs, but the prospect of losing out on tax benefits appeared to have been more salient to the small North Dakota town.

“We live in a climate right now where money is tight. Pocketbooks are getting squeezed by things that are way outside of our control,” Swartz said. “There’s people out there that are probably living paycheck-to-paycheck. They can’t afford to have more special assessments levied out on that monthly house payment. That would break them. I think that was a determining factor.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com