When the White House released its AI Action Plan last year, the term “data center” was mentioned only twice: once to prioritize building high-security centers for military and intelligence communities, and another to tout the United States as the leader in data center construction. Now, nearly every midterm election poll gauges voter response to the mass structures that are upending public opinion across the political spectrum, spelling trouble for Republicans and opportunity for Democrats.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
His post was released to the world while Vice President JD Vance gaggled with reporters before flying to Michigan to stump for Republican candidates, including Mike Rogers, who has endorsed a one-year moratorium on data centers.
“I think probably 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utilities and higher electricity for the people on the ground,” Vance said. He then defended Trump’s position that data centers are important to the economy and can take advantage of ways that the administration has cleared regulatory hurdles for them.
“If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out. And if that is happening, I don’t think the data centers are that controversial,” he added. “It’s when the utility bills get so much higher, that’s when it’s a real problem.”
While Republicans and the president find themselves at odds in their messaging strategies on data centers, Democrats are exploiting the voters’ increasing skepticism and the very public GOP division. Democrats already lead the RealClearPolitics congressional generic ballot by more than 6 percentage points heading into the November midterms, while Democrats are essentially tied with Republicans on their chances of claiming the Senate. And blue candidates across the country are hoping data centers become a rallying point that helps turn the tide in November.
“I would encourage anyone who’s ever been in a relationship to ask themselves: Does telling someone that they’re wrong work out to make the relationship better?” Brent Buchanan, founder and CEO of Republican-aligned polling company Cygnal told RealClearPolitics.
Over the past year and a half, Trump has eased some federal regulations, directed the government to study ways to use federal land for data centers, and has shamed local governments that are blocking data center development. Earlier this year, the White House released a data center pledge that companies could sign to take responsibility for their own infrastructure and grid needs, but the pledge is voluntary.
“We need a compassionate tone coming from the White House, along with strict guardrails, not voluntary pledges,” Buchanan said. But without that, candidates like Rogers need to strike out on their own. “Voters want to be heard first, and this issue is no different. Politicians have got to acknowledge that they’re hearing the voters and showing how they’re standing up for you over Big Tech or AI or data centers.”
The first type of data center was constructed in 1945 to house a massive computer to punch cards, which required several fans to keep it cool. The modern iteration is a giant concrete building full of server racks, wires, and significant water-based cooling technologies, all to power the new wave of artificial intelligence. Today, most data center trackers agree there are roughly 4,650 operating buildings across the country and countless more in the pipeline.
Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers last month became the first Republican to call for a year-long moratorium on data centers, but he later clarified that he was referring only to a statewide moratorium, not nationwide. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for reelection, reversed his previous support for data centers and said they had not been forthright about the costs to the state. In a statement, the governor threatened a moratorium on development in Texas unless companies agree to strict regulations to pay their full electrical infrastructure costs. Abbott added that Texas will phase out its tax incentives and directed regulators to audit all data center projects before any more continue.
Democrats have also pumped the brakes on data centers. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently signed the most stringent regulations in the country, less than a year after touting that the commonwealth would become one of the most desired locations for data centers.
President Trump has a point that data centers help local economies. Loudoun County, Virginia, is often called “Data Center Alley” for its high numbers of data centers. While the Washington suburb has been one of the most affluent in the country for longer than data centers have been around, county officials expect 45% of local tax revenue, to the tune of $1.3 billion, will come from data centers. A Chamber of Progress report found that data centers in Virginia paid around $1.3 billion in property taxes in 2024 alone.
But the eyesores have also shocked residents in areas where they did not know a data center was cropping up, partly due to an industry standard of requiring non-disclosure agreements with construction teams. Protest groups have flocked to city council meetings and lawmaker town halls to protest noise pollution, water pollution, and skyrocketing electricity bills, which they claim data centers have caused.
“If the GOP ignores those concerns, voters are going to say, ‘Well, what other concerns are you going to ignore?’” Buchanan warned. “It’s not like people are walking in and voting because they are pro- or anti-data center, but they are concerned about being listened to.”
A growing voter backlash
Public opinion has quickly soured on data centers during crucial campaigning time for midterm election candidates. An August University of Pennsylvania poll found that 61% of Americans oppose building new data centers nearby, up 12 percentage points from the previous February and March poll. The ire was shared across party lines, with 69% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans, and 53% of independents opposing new data centers.
Some foreign influence campaigns could be at play, which Trump hinted at in his Monday post. He has frequently argued that data centers are essential to American superiority in artificial intelligence, making it in China’s interest to block them. On Aug. 27, the X Safety Team identified a Chinese bot farm that fomented anger on its social media platform about data centers. But the foreign involvement does not account for the entire discourse. Of the 200,000 accounts implicated, only 200 consistently posted about data centers.
A recent Echelon Insights poll also found widespread disapproval of data centers, but the numbers eased when respondents were asked if data centers were required to foot the additional bills they cause. Around 57% of respondents said they view data centers very or somewhat unfavorably, and 52% said local governments should ban them. But when asked if data centers paid taxes to fund schools, funded property tax cuts for residents, and invested in local water projects, the number in favor of banning them dropped to 34%.
Nonetheless, Democratic candidates are hitching themselves to the anti-data center bandwagon. Former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown – who is running again this year – cut ads attacking incumbent Sen. Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor, for championing data center development during his time in the state government. Husted did not respond to the ads but soon introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act to force data centers nationwide to cover their own energy infrastructure. A leaked memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee indicated the party was caught off-guard by just how effective the anti-data center movement has become.
“More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck,” the August memo read. “Our polling indicates that this messaging is significantly more effecting than traditional messaging tracts, as it introduces new information on a highly relevant, emerging topic. This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”
The memo stirred up media coverage and conservatives to walk a tightrope between towing the president’s line to defend data centers and also prove to voters that they wouldn’t allow the companies to make life more expensive.
“This is more than just data centers,” Democratic strategist Dane Strother told RCP. “It’s about AI, and people are slow to change. The change is so severe and fast that data centers are literally the concrete focal point of what could be an overall larger AI protest.”
Strategists disagree on whether data centers will become the defining issue of the 2026 midterm cycle. Strother pointed out that there are regional differences: Data centers are going up in Louisiana without a stir, but others in Montana face extreme public outcry. He said the situation reflects broad concern about artificial intelligence, but that data centers are still a localized issue.
Ohio-based Republican communications consultant Mark Weaver said candidates routinely get antsy about polls in the months leading up to the election. In an interview with RCP, he said data centers still rank low on the list of what will affect voter decisions but allowed that Republicans need to show they’re listening to concerns.
“Sherrod Brown is so desperate to climb back into his Senate seat that he is throwing every possible attack against Jon Husted, and the one that’s being talked about most this month is data centers,” Weaver said.
But others see data centers as the perfect Trojan horse that brings with it plenty of other salient voter issues. Michael McGovern, president of Innovation Ohio, does not support banning data centers outright, but he said the AI companies’ failure to do their own PR combined with Republicans’ embrace opens a path for Democrats.
“I genuinely believe this is a generational opportunity for Democrats to make the case to rural and exurban voters that Democrats are on their side and standing with them against these big tech companies who are coming in and doing harm to their communities,” McGovern told RCP. “This is about the economy, corruption, power, and all these issues that are so vital to American politics right now, centered in on these giant physical structures.”
Carolina Lumetta is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics. Follow her on X @CarolinaLumetta.
