Election Day 2026 is just days away.

Voters in Orange County will be choosing a new mayor for the first time in eight years.

Chris Messina and Tiffany Moore Russell are running to replace Jerry Demings.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

It comes as AI and data centers are becoming hot-button political issues.

News 6 anchor Lisa Bell asked both Messina and Moore Russell their views on data centers moving into Orange County.

MOORE RUSSELL: So I think that’s a very general term, right? Because data centers vary based upon the size and their purpose, right. So at the clerk’s office, there’s a smaller version of that that houses our data, because we’re now in the cloud. We don’t have paper anymore in the courthouse, right, so someone is housing our digital court records. But I do not support the big data centers, the AI data centers that is being proposed today. And so I did commend the county for pushing for a moratorium just to pause. Allows for us to study the issue and determine what is the best fit for Orange County and so I do not believe the large AI data centers are appropriate for our community for what we’re trying to do moving forward.

BELL: What are your biggest concerns about those large data centers?

MOORE RUSSELL: It’s the water usage, it’s the demand on our power sources, whether it’s going to impact our water supply and the quality of our water, right, what’s feeding into our aquifer. And so it’s all of those environmental concerns that’s an issue for me, as well as is it a right fit for our community? Right? Where are you going to put a data center? No one wants a data center next to their home or next to a school. And so I just doesn’t think, I don’t think it matches the brand of Orange County and will fit in our community.

MESSINA: Small ones we need. I’m sure you have a data center here (at News 6), right, running your operations. It’s the hyperscale data centers, the ones that are football fields in size, those I don’t feel are right for Florida. And the reason I don’t feel they’re right is not necessarily energy because they can make their own energy with solar and other small power, associated power generation plants, it’s the impact on water. So I’ve seen personally first-hand what happens when you have a problem with a water supply to a data center. It’s pretty scary and the temperature goes way up. Systems fail and then you have discharge of water and the problem is what’s in the water in order to run those data centers. They have to add biocides and basically bacteria killers, but they will kill things out in the environment.

BELL: So if we shouldn’t have data centers here in Florida, where should we have them?

MESSINA: So, I really like Elon Musk’s idea to put it in space. And the reason I think that’s such a good idea is because space is near absolute zero. And we are, right now, we’re on the cusp of being the space tech center of the country.”

BELL: That seems like it would take decades to build enough data centers in space to power AI needs here on Earth.

MESSINA: I’m not sure it would. When you think about the pace of technology and who thought at one point that you could recapture a rocket booster landing or have a self-driving electric car or a watch where you can make phone calls, the pace in technology is pretty significant. So I would not bet against that.

We also asked each candidate their views on other issues such as Flock license plate reader cameras. To see their responses and our full interview, watch below.

[WATCH: News 6 interviews Orange County mayoral candidate Chris Messina]

[WATCH: News 6 interviews Orange County mayoral candidate Tiffany Moore Russell]