69% of Americans oppose local AI data centers, issue becomes central in 2026 US midterm elections

In short order, America's data centers have come to stand in for a broad range of apocalyptic threats—from the climate crisis to the surveillance state to Trump's kleptocracy.

Data centers are an excellent symbol for the Halloween season—sinister in every way. They combine the ugliness of strip mining, the creepiness of a CIA op, and the affront and destruction of a military invasion. They're hard on the land. They're loud. They're built with exquisite tenderness for GPUs, and near total disrespect for human beings.

Finally, the output of data centers—artificial intelligence—has spectacularly failed to win American hearts and minds. AI now seems to exist chiefly so oligarchs can spy on us, confiscate our wealth, lay us off, and finally wipe us out altogether. No chatbot oozing charisma, let alone a charmless CEO, seems able to persuade Americans that AI has their best interests at heart.

Public Opposition Reaches Fever Pitch

With the midterms less than a month away, suspicion of data centers has reached a fever pitch. According to a September poll by NBC News:

• 69% of respondents oppose AI data centers in their areas
• 45% "strongly oppose" the buildouts

Candidates in both parties are now running hard against them.

Political Attacks on Data Centers

Political attacks on data centers reliably conjure a nightmarish extraction economy, in which the powerful are sucking the very life out of the people.

Sherrod Brown (D), Ohio Senate candidate, says on the campaign trail:

"Big corporations gobble up energy to feed their data centers. They devour your land. They suck up your water. They leave you with the bill."

James Talarico (D), Texas Senate candidate, echoed Brown on CNN:

"These data centers are popping up in our communities, soaking up all our water, driving up our utility prices."

Talarico described his Republican rival Ken Paxton—who used AI deepfakes in an attack ad last month—as "bought by the data center industry."

The Pro-Data Center Camp

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has tied his fortunes entirely to AI and leads the frat of its crown princes. Trump has smeared data center protesters as "stupid people" who "want to be poor."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the ranking Smithers to Trump's Mr. Burns, insists that the resistance to data centers is a Chinese psyop.

The Scale of the Buildout

Paul Renshaw, founder and lead developer of PressAudit, which evaluates and aggregates the news, has created a map of the data center buildout showing where hyperscalers are breaking ground and where communities are protesting.

Renshaw's study reveals:

• Not only are more data centers in the works, but proposed new ones are 12 times larger per site than centers running today
• They are bigger, louder, and more destructive
• If they get up and running, data centers in the pipeline could dominate up to 20% of the entire U.S. electrical grid

Rising Energy Costs

Despite promises by AI companies, local electricity bills will almost certainly rise. Prices have already shot up dramatically in states with data centers:

| State | Energy Price Increase (5 years) | |-------|--------------------------------| | Pennsylvania | 41.6% | | Ohio | 41.6% |

Political Geography Shifts

As popular resistance has solidified, the political geography of the buildout has shifted:

• Most data centers built through 2024 were erected in Democratic counties
• New proposals for bigger centers are mostly in Republican counties

This may explain why Republicans have turned so sharply on the buildout. According to Renshaw:

| Date | Republican Support for Data Centers in Their Communities | |------|----------------------------------------------------------| | July 2025 | +36 | | August 2026 | −30 |

Competitive Districts in Play

The public's pushback has been fierce, especially in contested districts:

• 20 of the 43 most competitive House districts are contending with data center proposals
• Protesters have managed to pause about a quarter of them

This whiplash has caught at least 16 AI-boosting politicians off guard. These include House candidates in tight races across Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Virginia, along with:

• Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)
• Representative Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), candidate for Senate

All have supported data centers in the past. While some are trying to downplay their records, others are leaning into them.

Representative Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania), whom Newsweek recently ranked as the top data center booster in a competitive race, has told voters in his district that the U.S. "simply can't afford to slow down the buildout." With six in 10 Pennsylvania voters opposed to the centers, it's Perry's room-reading skills that might need building out.

The Real Apocalypse for the Very Rich

There's something especially satisfying about the oligarchs and their Republican friends crashing into, of all things, American democracy. Because while opposition to data centers could help decide the midterms, the midterms could also shape future data center policy—leading to pauses and moratoria. This would destabilize AI investment and undermine market gains. For the very rich, that's the real apocalypse.