Rage against the data centers
For years, artificial intelligence was largely an abstract political debate about chatbots, automation, and the future of work. In 2026, that changed. Across the United States, the physical infrastructure powering AI has become a flashpoint in local politics, state elections, and community activism, uniting voters who rarely agree on much else.
At the center of the debate are the vast data centers required to power AI systems. Supporters argue they are essential to maintaining American technological leadership and competing with China. Critics counter that the facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity, require significant water resources, and can reshape communities with little local input.
The result is a growing backlash that now stretches from rural Texas and Pennsylvania to New York suburbs and beyond, creating one of the few issues in American politics that appears to transcend traditional partisan lines.
Evidence of that opposition continues to mount.
A June 2026 survey from Echelon Insights found that voters opposed building an AI data center in their community by a margin of 62 percent to 27 percent. Even after respondents were shown additional messaging about economic and technological benefits, opposition remained at 58 percent.
Just as notable was what voters appeared willing to accept instead. In the same survey, more respondents said they would support building a nuclear power plant in their community than an AI data center.
According to Echelon Insights, support for a nuclear plant stood at 34 percent, compared with just 27 percent for an AI data center, while opposition to nuclear facilities was lower than opposition to data centers.
The finding represents a striking reversal of longstanding public attitudes. For decades, nuclear power plants have faced intense public skepticism over safety concerns, yet voters in 2026 expressed greater comfort living near a nuclear reactor than a facility housing the servers that power artificial intelligence. The result underscores how rapidly concerns about AI infrastructure, particularly its energy demands, water consumption and impact on local communities, have entered the public consciousness.
The reasons vary but are often consistent. Residents have raised alarms about water consumption, electricity demand, noise from cooling equipment, land-use conflicts, environmental impacts and the possibility of rising utility bills.
One reason the issue has become politically potent is that opposition does not fit neatly into existing partisan categories.
Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) research analyst Shawn Patterson told Newsweek that he believes opposition to AI data centers is drawing support from both Republicans and Democrats because each group is reaching the same conclusion.
“In our June–July survey, 61 percent of Americans oppose construction of new data centers in their area, up from 49 percent in the survey we fielded in February and March,” Patterson told Newsweek. “That 12-point move is the largest shift on any AI question we have measured, and it is not confined to a partisan subgroup: 69 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of Republicans and 53 percent of independents all oppose new local data centers.”
Although the surveys did not ask respondents why they opposed the data centers, Patterson said he’s noticed trends in shared concerns across parties, including AI’s effect on household utility costs, personal privacy, children’s safety online, and employment and jobs.
“Those are concrete, kitchen-table concerns rather than ideological ones—the kind that can be reached from either side of the political divide,” he said.
Across the country, citizens have organized protests, launched petitions, flooded zoning hearings and sued local governments over proposed projects, such as in Coweta County, Georgia, and Sangamon County, Illinois.
“People from across the political spectrum are worried about the energy, water, and environmental aspects of data centers,” Brookings senior fellow Darrell West told Newsweek. “They see their electric rates increasing and little transparency in the negotiations with local communities. This makes them fear that important facts are not being disclosed to them.”
The backlash has become so widespread that Erin Brockovich and other environmental activists launched nationwide efforts to track proposed data-center projects and gather community complaints.
The political implications are becoming impossible to ignore.
Political advertisements attacking candidates over AI and data centers have emerged on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Representative Tom Tiffany, a Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate, recently published a political ad labeling his Democratic opponent as “Data Center David Crowley.” The ad included clips of Crowley saying Wisconsin could become a hub for AI and data center infrastructure.
Crowley has previously said he views AI as a tool that requires “thoughtful oversight,” according to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In Texas, gubernatorial candidate and state representative Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, recently went after Republican Governor Greg Abbott in a political ad that showed a woman asking a chatbot why her electric bill was going up. The bot replied that it was because of increasing energy use from data center production.
This week, Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity began running ads targeting Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and accusing him of prioritizing the interests of AI and data center developers over Pennsylvania communities. Earlier this week, Shapiro signed an executive order imposing new restrictions on data center development, requiring developers to meet strict standards on energy costs, environmental protection, transparency and community engagement before projects can move forward.
The fact that criticism is emerging from both Democratic and Republican campaigns suggests support for AI infrastructure is becoming a genuine political vulnerability, not a niche local issue.
Axios reported this week that the National Republican Senatorial Committee privately warned leading AI companies that public opposition to data centers was becoming a political liability, arguing that the issue could influence the closely watched Ohio Senate race between Republican incumbent Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown and deter politicians across the country from backing future projects.
"If [Husted] loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one," the memo said.
“Public opinion polls show that large majorities are opposed to data centers so politicians are starting to campaign on this issue and criticize leaders who support data centers without getting sufficient information or benefits for their local communities,” West told Newsweek.
Both Republican and Democrat voters also tend to agree that the government has done “too little” to regulate AI, Patterson said, according to APPC survey data.
“Even among Republicans, a majority support more regulation,” he said.
However, although APPC data shows that both Republican and Democrat Americans agree there is a problem with AI data centers, it does not show whether they agree on what to do about that problem, Patterson said.
“Our data capture agreement on the problem. They do not test whether partisans hold different preferred remedies—siting rules, ratepayer protections, federal versus state authority—are on the table,” Patterson said.
Patterson stressed that “neither party has a pro-data-center constituency at the mass level,” but APPC data shows Republicans are the least oppositional. Still, the data shows 54 percent of Republicans oppose data center construction.
Not everyone agrees the expansion should slow. Some Republican lawmakers and technology leaders argue that restricting data-center construction threatens America's ability to compete globally.
Speaking this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that broad moratoriums on data-center development could be dangerous, arguing that the United States is engaged in a strategic AI competition with China.
“In my state of Louisiana, we have welcomed these facilities with open arms because it’s great economic development projects for these local communities,” he said while campaigning for fellow Republicans in Michigan.
The argument echoes concerns raised by many technology companies and some lawmakers who believe limiting AI infrastructure risks ceding economic and geopolitical advantages to Beijing. Yet, Johnson's position illustrates the challenge lawmakers now face. While many support AI development in theory, voters increasingly express skepticism when the facilities are proposed near their own communities.
President Donald Trump has also spoken in favor of AI data centers. This week, he warned that municipal or state leaders rejecting data center construction proposals would get left behind, adding that many of the data centers “are designed in a very beautiful way.”
“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous,” Trump said. “If you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it.”
Perhaps the clearest sign of shifting political winds is coming from governors.
In Texas, Abbott, a Republican, recently ordered additional scrutiny of data center projects seeking connections to the state's power grid and directed regulators to audit proposed developments. The standards he outlined include requiring data centers to pay their own infrastructure costs, reduce impacts on local communities, use more water-efficient technologies, and add power capacity to the grid rather than merely increasing demand.
In New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has supported stronger oversight measures as lawmakers considered restrictions and temporary pauses affecting certain large-scale facilities.
Shapiro became the latest governor to act when he signed an executive order this week requiring developers seeking permits to meet Pennsylvania's Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) requirements, secure local approval, and meet standards covering energy affordability, transparency, environmental protection and community engagement. The order also removes AI data center proposals from Pennsylvania's fast-track permitting program and bars the use of nondisclosure agreements associated with projects.
“Over the past year, I’ve listened to the people of Pennsylvania – and I’ve heard directly from many residents across our Commonwealth who are concerned about what data center development could mean for our communities, our environment, and our utility bills,” Shapiro said in a press release announcing the order.
“My message to data center developers is clear: if you can’t agree to our strict requirements and get the community where you want to build to say ‘yes,’ you’re not going to have the Commonwealth’s support either. These are some of the biggest companies in the world — they can afford to be good neighbors, follow the rules, and do this right.”
Despite their differing political ideologies, Abbott, Hochul and Shapiro are responding to many of the same voter concerns: water use, electricity costs, community control, transparency and environmental impacts. That convergence may be the strongest evidence yet that data centers have become a genuinely bipartisan issue.
“Republicans generally have been the party that supported economic development so they are on the line for past actions favoring data centers,” West said. “Some Democrats are running ads featuring their opponent's support of data centers. If voters repudiate politicians who support data center, it will encourage more communities to support moratoriums in the future.”
The backlash has spread beyond politics and into popular culture.
This week, former NFL star Jason Kelce appeared in a tongue-in-cheek advertisement for Garage Beer and Liquid Death that satirized concerns about data center water consumption. The campaign jokingly proposed replacing the water used to cool AI servers with human urine, with Kelce singing "We want your pee" while encouraging viewers not to actually mail bodily fluids to data centers.
As absurd as the premise may sound, the ad's creators were tapping into something very real: widespread concern that AI facilities require enormous quantities of water and resources.
The AI industry shows no signs of slowing. Technology companies continue pursuing new facilities, while governments increasingly view AI leadership as an economic and national-security priority.
Whether the issue leads to additional moratoriums, stricter regulations, or a fundamental reconsideration of how AI infrastructure is built remains unclear. As more projects are proposed in communities across the country, political candidates may discover that where they stand on data centers matters just as much as where they stand on AI itself.
“An issue with majority opposition in every partisan group and no established party ownership can sort in several directions: one party can claim it, both can adopt it locally while diverging nationally, or it can remain a place-based cleavage that cuts across party," Patterson told Newsweek. “What happens next is an open question.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson.