Energy Affordability is Reshaping the 2026 Midwest Governors’ Races

Contact: Emily Halvorson

To: Interested Parties

From: Evergreen Action Midwest Advocate Lauren Reeg

Date: July 27, 2026

Re: Energy Affordability is Reshaping the 2026 Midwest Governors’ Races 

In Michigan and Wisconsin—two of the nation’s most competitive battleground states—the politics of energy are shifting. Rising electricity costs, growing concerns about utility accountability, and the rapid expansion of data centers have moved energy issues from the margins of policy debates to the center of campaigns. 

As voters increasingly look for answers on costs, consumer protections, and each state’s energy future, candidates are offering competing visions. In Wisconsin, where 84 percent of voters are concerned about the cost of electricity, candidates will gather this week for a forum devoted entirely to the impacts of data centers and their plans for how to protect consumers and local economies. 

The shift in energy policy becoming a kitchen table issue is also changing how candidates talk about clean energy. Once framed primarily as a climate issue, clean energy is increasingly being positioned as an affordability strategy—one that can reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices, strengthen grid reliability, and protect households from future spikes. At the same time, leading Republican candidates have attacked clean energy as a solution, highlighting a growing divide over its role in addressing rising energy costs. 

That focus on affordability reflects the realities facing consumers across the Midwest. Utilities are seeking record rate increases driven by aging infrastructure, fossil fuels, and surging electricity demand from massive new energy users like data centers. This year, energy bills are expected to rise. For example, the average XCEL customer’s bills are expected to rise by more than $150, while many Michigan customers are seeing electric rates increase by nearly 9 percent. Nationally, utilities requested more than $18 billion in rate hikes during the first half of 2025, including roughly $2.7 billion across the Midwest. 

Across Michigan and Wisconsin, Evergreen has identified three major themes in candidate platforms: 

• Holding data centers accountable for new energy demand;
• Strengthening utility oversight to protect ratepayers; and
• Expanding clean energy as a strategy for more affordable and reliable power.

The central question is increasingly clear: who should bear the cost of the region’s changing energy landscape—utilities, corporations, or everyday customers? 

Responding to the Midwest Data Center Boom

Few issues better illustrate the changing energy landscape than the emergence of data centers. As AI-driven demand fuels rapid development across the Midwest, states must decide who will be expected to pay for the new infrastructure and power necessary to meet demand.

The political challenge is growing as voters demand answers for how communities will manage the costs and impacts of new data center development. Americans are currently much more likely to view data centers as harmful than beneficial, increasing pressure on candidates to explain how they will lower energy bills, protect local economies, and address environmental concerns. 

Across both Michigan and Wisconsin races, candidates broadly agree that data centers should not shift costs onto existing customers. Most support creating separate utility rates to prevent cross-subsidization, and Wisconsin candidates have also proposed reforming or eliminating tax incentives for data centers altogether. Of the candidates, only Francesca Hong has proposed a temporary state-wide moratorium until these guardrails can be put into place. 

The biggest divide is over clean energy. Democratic candidates generally support requiring data centers to bring new clean energy online, with Wisconsin candidates like Mandela Barnes, Francesca Hong, Joel Brennan, and Kelda Roys explicitly endorsing a 100 percent “Bring Your Own Clean Energy” approach. Republican candidates in both states have not prioritized similar requirements, with Tom Tiffany’s campaign explicitly against large-scale renewables, particularly on farmland.  

Utility Accountability as a Test of Leadership

Rising utility bills have pushed another question to the center of the gubernatorial races: Who is looking out for customers? 

Candidates promising to lower energy costs must now address more than fuel prices and inflation. Voters are looking for a governor who will scrutinize billion-dollar utility investments, rein in excessive rate hikes and profits, appoint regulators focused on affordability, and ensure customers are not paying for unnecessary spending. 

Candidates are offering sharply different visions for utility accountability. Democratic candidates in both states have largely embraced stronger oversight as an affordability strategy, including appointing affordability-focused commissioners, increasing scrutiny of utility investments, and strengthening long-term planning. 

Wisconsin Democrats have emphasized limiting future rate increases and establishing Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) processes to improve long-term decision-making. In Michigan, candidate Jocelyn Benson has proposed limiting utility returns on equity, restricting utility lobbying and campaign contributions, and improving reliability. 

Republican candidates have focused more heavily on expanding and maintaining fossil fuel generation and increasing energy supply rather than restructuring utility regulation or limiting utility profits. 

Clean Energy As an Affordability Strategy

One of the biggest shifts in these campaigns is how candidates are talking about clean energy. Increasingly, Democratic candidates are framing renewable energy, energy efficiency, and grid modernization as not only climate policies, but as affordability tools that can lower costs and protect families from volatile fossil fuel prices. 

Regional experience supports that argument. Illinois adopted a 100 percent clean energy standard in 2021, while Michigan and Minnesota followed in 2023. Michigan projects its clean energy laws will save households roughly $5.6 billion in energy costs by 2050—more than $1,300 per household. Minnesota’s average electric bill remains about $20 below the national average, with analysts pointing to the state’s growth in wind, solar, and energy efficiency as key factors. 

These examples are shaping the debate in Michigan and Wisconsin, where candidates are increasingly being pushed to explain how their policies will affect household costs. 

Democratic candidates in both states broadly support expanding clean energy as a way to improve affordability, reliability, and economic development. Wisconsin candidates, including Hong, Brennan, and Roys, have endorsed a 100 percent clean electricity standard, a version of which has been introduced in the state legislature. 

Republican candidates, on the other hand, have generally opposed building out more clean energy sources and favor continued investment in fossil fuel generation. Tiffany’s campaign has supported eliminating renewable incentives while keeping fossil fuel subsidies—like the Trump administration’s bailout of coal plants in the state.

The Bottom Line

Energy affordability is becoming a top voter priority—and it’s reshaping what candidates must address in the 2026 gubernatorial races. 

Across Michigan and Wisconsin, candidates are responding to rising electricity costs and a rapidly changing energy landscape with proposals focused on three core challenges: ensuring data centers pay their fair share, increasing accountability for utilities, and expanding clean energy to deliver more affordable power. 

This shift means the next governors of Michigan and Wisconsin will enter office with a clear mandate: hit the ground running on energy affordability and deliver solutions to the challenges families are facing today.