Kansas
Kansas has moved from incentives into active local siting fights in 2026, with county moratoriums, resident opposition, and failed statewide water-use restrictions, but no statewide ban.
IARM Domain Signals
Energy/Power is the most stressed domain: local reporting repeatedly centers on substation upgrades, transmission capacity, and whether data-center load growth will lift residential bills. Water/Geology is the second stress point because west-Sedgwick residents and lawmakers focused on aquifer impacts and closed-loop cooling proposals (KCUR, KMUW).
IIKey 2026 Races
None clearly identified statewide. The closest electoral linkage is local: in Johnson County and Wyandotte County, data-center fights are shaping city-council and county-level politics, but I did not find a 2026 Kansas race where data centers were a dominant campaign issue with a defined candidate slate. State lawmakers such as Sen. Chase Blasi (R-Andale) are publicly engaging the issue, but he is not on the 2026 ballot in the material found.
IIIMoratorium · Ban Status
Kansas has no statewide moratorium or ban as of May 2026. A state-level water-focused restriction bill, SB 400, would have required closed-loop cooling systems for data centers, but it died in Senate committee on Apr. 10, 2026 (Kansas Legislature SB 400). Local pauses are more consequential: Sedgwick County imposed an interim development control/moratorium on data-center zoning applications and extended it in March 2026 while drafting rules; McPherson County also has a moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas until Dec. 1, 2026 (KMUW, Wichita Eagle).
IVRatepayer · Cost-Shift Legislation
Kansas enacted SB 98, which created a 20-year sales-tax exemption for qualified data centers making at least a $250 million investment and meeting job requirements (Kansas Legislature SB 98). In 2026, cost-allocation pressure became the countertrend: Kansas Corporation Commission action in late 2025/early 2026 reportedly approved a plan to allocate energy costs so residential customers do not foot data-center-related upgrades, and the broader debate centers on whether utilities can shift substation/transmission and generation costs onto ordinary ratepayers (KCUR). Separate statewide ratepayer-protection legislation specifically targeting data-center cost shifts was not clearly identified in the material found.
VBallot Measures
None identified. Ballotpedia’s 2026 data-center ballot-measure list did not identify any Kansas measure in the set of measures it tracked as of spring 2026 (Ballotpedia).
VITop Contested Sites
1) Beale Infrastructure campus, Gardner, Johnson County — proposed 300-acre hyperscale project, but the company withdrew its application in May 2026 after the city said no incentives would be granted (KCUR). 2) Red Wolf DCD Properties project, Parallel Parkway, western Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas — 1.8 million-square-foot, $12 billion hyperscale project; zoning approval was challenged by protest petitions and a lawsuit, leaving the project delayed/contested (KCUR). 3) Sedgwick County land buys by Monarch Energy and NextEra Energy, western Sedgwick County near Colwich/Andale/Garden Plain — not yet a formal filed project, but a major contested pipeline as residents organize and the county’s moratorium remains in place (KMUW).
VIIActive Opposition Organizations
VIIITalent · Workforce
None identified at the state political-surface layer as of May 2026. Talent and workforce dynamics in Kansas surface primarily at the sub-state and labor-market level — county and municipal proceedings on named projects, regional building trades council positions, and utility commission workforce testimony — which are out of scope for the tracker's state-political-surface read. Request a full RAIL briefing for sub-state and labor-market analysis.
IXData Center Cluster Size
Growing cluster. Kansas still trails the top-tier national hubs, but the Wichita/Johnson County/Kansas City corridor now has multiple hyperscale proposals, state tax incentives, and at least one already-withdrawn major campus, suggesting an emerging but not yet mature footprint (KCUR, Kansas Legislature SB 98).
XKey Quote
“I should be able to know why my power bill went up, and it's because they had to put in a new substation or gas power plant or water pumping facility for one development,” said KC Data Center Watchdog organizer Katie Currid (KCUR).