Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, was midway through defending her record during the final debate of the midterms when an audience member cut her short.
"I'm terrified," a man shouted. "AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning our water." Collins brushed off the outburst, tying the man to her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson. But the fear echoing through the auditorium wasn't so easily dismissed. Just days before voters head to the polls, the rapid expansion of resource-hungry data centers has exploded into one of Maine's most volatile campaign issues.
Maine drew national headlines in April when the state Le …