In a midterm election defined by Americans' overwhelming resistance to data centers, one small North Dakota town went against the grain.

Of the 45 data center ballot measures that appeared across the country this past election, only one produced a pro-data center outcome, according to data from Redbud Consulting. That result belonged to Harwood, a community of roughly 940 people located 10 miles from Fargo, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have imposed limits on large-scale industrial developments such as data centers. Approximately 75% of the 430 votes cast on Tuesday—325 in total—opposed the measure.

Data centers were a major flashpoint of the midterm elections. Faced with a fresh wave of moratoriums and restrictions, AI companies such as OpenAI have been scrambling to rebrand the buildout, marketing construction alongside pledges of perks and community benefits in an effort to win over both local governments and residents.

The Harwood initiative would have amended the town's Home Rule Charter to impose requirements restricting how the city evaluates, approves, and administers development or building projects, including independent reviews and public hearings for industrial projects.

The measure emerged after ground was broken on a 160-acre data center in Harwood, a project being overseen by Applied Digital Corp. with Oracle as the end-user. The facility was scheduled to be fully operational next year and could potentially expand to 900 acres. The measure's defeat leaves the Home Rule Charter unchanged: the independent reviews and public hearings it would have required for industrial projects will not be adopted, and development will continue through the town's existing approval process.

Michael Swartz, a senior software developer who has lived in Harwood for nearly 20 years, said the town's relationship with data centers may not be as clear-cut 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.

Swartz, who championed the ballot measure and spent a year fighting the campus's continued construction, believes the local data center expansion has the potential to harm the area and that efforts to advance the initiative were hampered by local authorities.

Harwood's data center battle

According to Swartz, Harwood residents learned about the data center construction only about three weeks before work began in Sept. 2025. At the time, the Fargo Forum reported that then-Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney and Harwood Mayor Blake Hankey had 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, 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's concerns centered on the noise pollution typically associated with data centers, particularly given that an elementary school sits within roughly a mile of the campus. After a city council meeting at which he says he was not permitted to speak, Swartz reached out to other residents and formed the grassroots advocacy group Voices of Harwood. By January, the group had drafted a Home Rule Charter amendment, which they viewed as a stronger measure than an ordinance, since ordinances can be changed by city council members. In August of this year, the petition to place the measure on the ballot gathered 91 signatures—more than twice the required 40—in just three days, Swartz said.

Then came the challenges. According to Swartz, in September the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce began distributing anti-measure materials after Swartz circulated a mailer he had paid for himself. Some of those materials, which Fortune reviewed, claimed that passage of the measure would cost taxpayers an additional $300,000 to $544,000 and raise annual taxes by thousands of dollars due to lost projects.

Cale Dunwoody, vice president for public policy at the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, told Fortune in a statement that the organization "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 that the amendment would impose an additional administrative burden on the town and set a precedent of requiring public votes on every town issue. City Councilman Chris Higgins, among other officials, feared the measure could prompt Applied Digital Corp. to de-annex the project, triggering the loss of tax benefits. Hankey said the data center would generate $1.65 million in taxes by 2028. A North Dakota tax incentive would also grant Applied Digital Corp. an exemption from the state's 5% sales tax on computers, cooling systems, and servers.

Swartz was additionally troubled by the language of the measure that ultimately appeared on the ballot, which he said differed significantly from what Voices of Harwood had presented to the election committee, making it harder for voters to understand what the initiative entailed.

"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 the 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 against the measure, he attributed its failure to the same force behind many other data center roadblocks—and behind Democrats' sweeping victory on election night: affordability.

Pew Research Center has found that half of Americans believe data centers would have a negative impact on their energy costs, but the prospect of losing out on tax benefits appeared to be 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."

With the ballot fight settled, the project's own milestones now frame what comes next for Harwood: the Applied Digital facility is scheduled to be fully operational next year, with the potential to expand from 160 acres to 900, all under the approval rules voters chose to keep.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.