Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday endorsed banning new artificial intelligence data centers in rural areas, sharpening a stance that until recently had focused on regulating the industry rather than blocking it.

Speaking at a campaign stop in Bullard, about 110 miles southeast of Dallas, the Republican governor tied the issue to a broader property tax push and signaled he would press lawmakers to end the industry's state sales tax break.

"We must prohibit them from building AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods," Abbott told the crowd at Milano's Pizza, framing the fight as one over "East Texas values."

He said any developer eyeing the state would need to "bring their own money, bring their own power, reuse their own water," and warned that the sales tax exemption the industry now enjoys should be repealed.

The remarks go further than a June 10 directive Abbott sent to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which set a July 17 response deadline and called for large-load customers to fund their own infrastructure, adopt closed-loop cooling, and file annual water and power usage reports.

An Abbott campaign spokesperson said the Bullard comments "track" with that letter.

Pressure has been building from within his own party.

State Rep. Helen Kerwin, a Republican who represents Somervell County, wrote to Abbott in March urging an "immediate pause" on rural data center development so the state could "get the foundational policies right from the beginning."

She welcomed Tuesday's announcement on X, thanking Abbott for "listening to the voices of Rural Texas."

The fight over local authority is already unfolding.

Hill County briefly weighed a moratorium before backing off in the face of a $100 million lawsuit from a data center developer, according to the Texas Tribune.

San Marcos, between San Antonio and Austin, recently became the first Texas city to outright ban data centers, prompting Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt to prepare a legal challenge.

Whether the Legislature grants counties broader tools to block development or preserves the state's pro-industry footing is the question Abbott's pledge puts before lawmakers.