DUBUQUE, Iowa — November 13, 2026 — When Dubuque County voters picked two new supervisors on November 3, 2026, they did not just change the faces on the Board of Supervisors. They settled, for now, the county’s most heated question: what to do about data centers.
Democrats Kristin Dietzel (22,076 votes) and Rick Dickinson (19,576) won the two at-large seats, ahead of Republicans Jason Davis (18,941) and incumbent Wayne Kenniker (18,086). The margins were close — Dickinson edged Davis by 635 votes — and the incumbent finished last. Real Dubuque News, in its ballot guide, called data center regulation “the dividing issue” in the race.
The candidates’ positions were not set in press releases. They were set in question-and-answer sessions — a packed candidate forum in September, a League of Women Voters forum in October, and the Dubuque Area Chamber’s voter guide survey — where all four were asked, in public, where they stood.
The forum that framed the race
On September 15, 2026, more than 200 people packed Happy’s Place, 2323 Rockdale Road in Dubuque, for a candidate forum organized by Data Center Accountability for the Citizens of Dubuque County, a citizens group formed around the data center issue. All four supervisor candidates and both county attorney candidates took part. Each supervisor candidate got ten minutes to speak and then answered four questions, all about data centers:
- Regarding the proposed 420-acre data center project, along with the additional targeted farmland bordered by Olde Davenport Road, Laudeville Road, Feeney Road, and Highway 61, would you vote to approve a rezoning request for a data center at this location?
- In May, a national Gallup poll found 71 percent of Americans oppose data centers. The City of Dubuque showed 76 percent oppose data centers, and the City of Peosta’s survey results were over 87 percent opposed. Do you agree with the citizens that data centers, as constructed today, do not belong anywhere within Dubuque County?
- Do you believe the comprehensive plan does prioritize citizens’ well-being, farmland preservation, and natural resources over large-scale projects such as data centers?
- Do you agree that compliance with all ordinance application requirements should not entitle a data center project to approval, and that the Board of Supervisors should retain discretion to deny the request?
The proposal behind the questions was the Karis Critical data center south of Highway 20 near Peosta, which drew about 87 percent opposition in a Peosta survey of roughly 300 respondents. The county has been working on a data center ordinance under a 12-month moratorium approved in May 2026, and Peosta extended its own moratorium to June 18, 2027.
At the forum, all four supervisor candidates expressed opposition to data centers in the county, with differences in how far they would go to stop one.
Where each candidate stood
Jason Davis (R) — the ban. Davis, a U.S. Army Ranger veteran and director of communications and fund development at the Dubuque Community YMCA, took the hardest line. In the Chamber’s voter guide, one of his key priorities was to “oppose large-scale hyperscale data center development in unincorporated Dubuque County,” alongside preserving farmland and opposing non-disclosure agreements involving county business. At the League of Women Voters forum on October 14, he went further, saying data centers “should be a prohibited land use in Dubuque County” and calling for a county-level ban. He also made modernizing the county’s 13-year-old Comprehensive Plan his one bold action.
Rick Dickinson (D) — regulate it out of reach. Dickinson, a former Sabula mayor, two-term Jackson County supervisor, two-term state representative, and 30-year president and CEO of the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation before retiring in January 2026, put data centers in his top five priorities in the Chamber survey: “Fight any notion of locating a data center near the Dubuque Regional Airport and enact comprehensive ordinances to regulate data centers and renewable energy with the #1 priority being protection of all Dubuque County residents.” His approach was ordinance-first rather than ban-first: write rules strict enough to protect residents, farms, and water, and keep the board’s discretion to say no.
Kristin Dietzel (D) — protect the land and water. Dietzel, who built her career in education and workforce development at Northeast Iowa Community College and Greater Dubuque Development and now runs a small business, listed “land use ordinances that protect our environment, farms, and residents from harm” and “expanded water-quality initiatives” among her key priorities in the Chamber survey. At the September forum she backed the team approach the group was pushing — a strong, defensible ordinance built with residents at the table.
Wayne Kenniker (R, incumbent) — the quietest no. Kenniker, a former Sageville mayor in his fourth year as supervisor, was the least absolute of the four. His Chamber survey never named data centers among his key priorities; instead he stressed public safety, clean ground and well water monitoring, lower property taxes, and deciding issues on “complete factual information” with “politics and emotions removed.” He joined the other candidates in expressing opposition at the September forum, but his emphasis stayed on process rather than pledges. After the election, the citizens group that hosted the forum congratulated Dietzel and Dickinson and thanked Davis “for standing with citizens” — Kenniker was not among those it thanked.
The split was visible again at the League of Women Voters forum on October 14, where, as Citizen Portal summarized it, some supervisor candidates wanted to ban data centers as a land use while others favored ordinance-based regulation. Multiple candidates also called for updating the county’s comprehensive plan, last revised in 2013. KCRG interviewed all four candidates in late October about data centers, taxes, and water quality.
What the result means — and what it doesn’t
The two winners will join the three-seat Board of Supervisors in January, and the data center ordinance is the first big test waiting for them. The citizens group that hosted the September forum put it plainly in its post-election newsletter: “The election was never the goal. The ordinance is.” The county moratorium remains in place, but it will not last forever, and work sessions continue — including a November 9 session on a Data Center Road Use Agreement and a Zoning Commission work session at NICC in December to review draft ordinance language line by line.
Two cautions belong with the result. First, no polling or exit data ties the supervisor outcome to the data-center issue alone. The Democrats also won in a wave year — Rob Sand, Josh Turek, and Lindsay James all carried Dubuque County — and Dickinson’s top priority in the Chamber survey was returning “civility, professionalism and results” to a board known lately for bickering. Second, the vote totals are the reported election-night totals; the county canvassed the results on November 10 and the state canvass is due by November 30.
The same dynamic played out in the county attorney race on the same ballot, where Steve Drahozal defeated incumbent Scott Nelson 22,230 to 20,071. Drahozal pledged to give the board proactive legal guidance and help write a county data-center ordinance built to survive a legal challenge. Nelson, in the Chamber survey, said the county attorney does not involve himself with policy issues “which are exclusively within the province of the Board of Supervisors.”
That is where the power sits now: with Dietzel and Dickinson, and with the ordinance they will help write. The forum questions from September are about to become governing decisions.
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