My Biggest Takeaway Took Me by Surprise

My biggest takeaway from the 2026 Texas Democratic Convention took me by surprise. When I arrived in Corpus Christi, I expected to hear – and, of course, did hear – conversations about affordability, democracy, and authoritarianism. I didn't expect to leave thinking about water.

About electricity.

Or about artificial intelligence (AI).

Yet one of the most important conversations I heard all week centered on something many Texans know little about: data centers.

Let me set the context for when I had my “aha” moment. As a delegate from El Paso, I sat in a midsized convention conference room with some 30 people waiting for the West Texas caucus meeting to begin. Then four individuals walked into the room together and took seats near the front – smiling, conversing and joking with one another.

Before they said a word, three things struck me: they were young, they were comrades, and they represented the diversity of Texas itself. They looked like the future of civic leadership – three men and one woman. One was Hispanic, two were Black, and one was White.

Though they came from different communities, each spoke passionately and with remarkable clarity about their call to run for office.

They shared one concern: the rapid construction of data centers across West Texas and the strain they may place on the state's water and electrical systems.

Why are these resources at risk? According to the Jackson School of Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin (“New Research Program Promotes Sustainable Data Center Growth in Texas,” May 20, 2025), water is used for on-site cooling. In addition, the traditional natural gas and nuclear power plants that provide electricity to these data centers use immense amounts of water for their own steam and cooling systems.

Did you know that, according to the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), Texas data centers currently consume roughly 25 billion gallons of water annually? Driven in large part by the AI boom, consumption could go as high as 161 billion gallons per year by 2030.

These four civic leaders laid out a convincing argument about why this technology threatens their cities, and communities across the state.

Throughout the Convention, several delegates and speakers mentioned Elon Musk and his companies as examples of how rapidly growing technologies can place increasing demands on water and power resources. Whether one agrees with their concerns or not, the conversation reminded me that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies carry real consequences for communities and infrastructures.

I'll admit it, before this convention, I hadn't given much thought to data centers or the infrastructure required to power artificial intelligence.

But I left wondering whether one of the great civic questions of our time may be this: How do we embrace technological progress while also protecting the communities and resources on which we depend?

I leave Corpus Christi with a new appreciation for the questions that live beneath our political debates, and the civic issues that may profoundly shape our common future.

I come away motivated to not only raise awareness about what the political parties have to say about affordability, democracy, and authoritarianism, but to learn more about this issue and its ethical considerations.

I am eager to learn from you and others, so please feel free to email me or post a comment on Instagram or YouTube.