Key facts
- Holscher beat Republican state legislator Ty Masterson, who conceded the race.
- Holscher's moratorium would pause data center approvals until the state assesses their impact.
- Kansas has $46 billion in announced data center projects, mostly in the Kansas City area.
- Kansas also elected Democrat Adam Hamilton to the US Senate over incumbent Republican Roger Marshall.
- Democrat Chris Mann won the attorney general race over incumbent Kris Kobach.
- Holscher said she backed the moratorium even after Democratic party officials advised against it.
Democrat Cindy Holscher, a Kansas state lawmaker, won the state's governor's race, defeating Republican state legislator Ty Masterson, who conceded after the race was called on Thursday night, November 12, 2026. Holscher campaigned on a moratorium for data center development, tying local anger over AI infrastructure to energy affordability and backlash against big tech.
She told Reuters earlier this year that supporting a data center moratorium was a "no brainer" because it was a top concern at every town hall she held across the state. She backed the pause even after Democratic party officials initially advised her against it, and she lost the support of Kansas' top labor unions. The state's largest transit and railroad union and a local chapter of the IBEW electrical workers union backed Masterson, the first time in decades they backed a Republican, according to the report.
"What I was hearing from a lot of these folks is that they're tired of their communities being left behind in terms of economic development, but they don't want to have to sell out their resources or their people to be invested in," Holscher told Reuters in an interview. She said her moratorium would pause data center approvals until the state understands their impact and ensures companies develop projects in a way that helps communities. "We have to have those guardrails, or it's not good for us," she said.
Kansas has been a destination for data center investment as part of a Midwestern technology hub dubbed the Silicon Prairie, with $46 billion in announced projects, primarily in the Kansas City area. The state is among those targeted by a new pro-data center campaign backed by tech billionaires including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
Kansas also elected a Democrat to the US Senate for the first time in nearly a century, choosing pastor Adam Hamilton over incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, and flipped the attorney general's office, electing Democrat Chris Mann over incumbent Kris Kobach. The report linked the Senate result to backlash against Trump's immigration crackdown.