Data centers are quickly becoming the next big political issue. And neither party has figured out how to run on them.
Major political figures on both sides have struggled to figure out their positions, and in-depth results from The POLITICO Poll help explain why: Americans don’t know much about data centers, they don’t really know how to feel about them and they’re not yet sure where the political battle lines lie.
But they do know they matter. A bipartisan majority of Americans said they expect data centers to become a campaign issue in their area eventually, the poll found, with nearly half saying it would become one within the next five years.
“If you had asked me about data centers five months ago, I would have said: ‘What’s a data center?’” Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said in an interview. “Now it’s everywhere. So that’s a short amount of time to fully formulate what you think about it.”
The survey reveals the early contours of an evolving political battle — and the opportunity and risk for politicians hoping to seize on the nascent power of an issue that touches on AI and tech, infrastructure and development, environmental resources, jobs and energy costs.
Republicans appear to have an early edge on the issue, though public opinion is so largely unformed that it’s unclear how that may change.
Pluralities — but not majorities — of voters in both parties said they support the construction of data centers, with Americans who say they plan to vote for the GOP in November about 8 points more likely than Democratic voters, according to the survey conducted by independent London-based firm Public First.
Republicans’ appetite for data centers may be driven in part by President Donald Trump, who has been bullish on artificial intelligence and data center expansion and who has been combative against both blue and red states aiming to restrict that growth. He wrote on social media last month that “Data Centers are key” to ensuring that the U.S. dominates on AI.
His position is most clearly reflected among his strongest supporters. Asked at the start of the poll for their position, before additional information had been provided, a 55 percent majority of voters who both backed Trump in 2024 and self-identified as “MAGA Republicans” said they support a new data center being built in their local area.
Support was markedly lower among Trump voters who did not consider themselves MAGA Republicans, at 38 percent, and Kamala Harris voters, at 36 percent.
Democrats expressed worry about the water supply and electricity bills — concerns that have already emerged in recent elections.
With public opinion on data centers still fluid, candidates are beginning to experiment with whether — and how — to embrace data centers as a campaign issue.
Democrats saw early success in highlighting backlash to data centers in the off-year elections, when Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia won their gubernatorial elections by wide margins with pledges to better regulate data centers and their energy consumption. In Georgia, Democrats beat two Republican incumbent state regulators in part by supporting guardrails around data center growth.
The issue has only spiraled since. It has fueled intraparty rifts, with progressives splitting over whether to temporarily ban new warehouse construction and Republicans who want more guardrails for artificial intelligence diverging from a president who’s trying to cut red tape.
It has also created unusual crossover: Governors in both parties are racing to regulate the booming industry, where regulation has often lagged growth. Conservative Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rolled out a “bill of rights” to protect consumers and residents last year, and moderate Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania proposed new safeguards for ratepayers and resources earlier this month.
The POLITICO Poll found that voters’ top concerns about data centers center around household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost the taxpayer money.
Data centers are now rocketing to the forefront of Democrats’ messy Senate primary in Michigan. The race in a perennial battleground with some 70 data centers will serve as a key test of their potency in swing states heading into 2028.
Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed, in an interview, said voters’ perspectives are “very quickly evolving” and that “it’s unsurprising” that Democratic voters are more skeptical of them — which gives the party an “opportunity to lead” on the issue.
He has emerged as the most vocal critic of data centers in the three-way race, outlining “terms of engagement” last month that would prevent tech companies from passing energy costs on to ratepayers and protect water resources and jobs.
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is straddling the line between moderate and progressive, has taken a more measured tone. In public appearances and in statements, McMorrow has said she opposes any project that “raises residential [electricity] rates, hurts our water, does not use union labor and doesn’t actually create revenue for the state” but also that “done right, data centers are a transformational opportunity.”
And centrist Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens said “AI and data infrastructure require a clear, responsible policy framework to ensure these technologies are developed safely and securely,” in a statement. She said AI policy should boost productivity and user experience, while protecting taxpayers, strengthening the workforce, and safeguarding “good-paying union jobs.”
Democratic candidates who find themselves out of step with their voters on data centers could pay a real electoral price, The POLITICO Poll found.
Just 7 percent of Democrats said they would be less likely to support a Democratic candidate who opposes a data center — but 20 percent said they would be less likely to back one who supports it.
Divisions over data centers are emerging within the GOP as well, with some Republicans breaking from Trump — a sign of the issue’s rapidly evolving political terrain.
DeSantis, for instance, has become a vocal data center critic, while lawmakers from states experiencing a rise of data centers are walking a more delicate line, supportive of AI development, but insistent that the states should be the ones regulating data center construction. Most Republicans, however, remain aligned with Trump, bullish on AI development and seeing it as crucial to competing with China.
Party operatives say data centers could quickly climb up voters’ list of concerns as more of them are proposed and built, but that they’re not yet a dominant electoral issue.
Americans agree.
Right now, the construction of data centers ranked last when survey respondents were asked to rank up to three of the top issues facing the U.S. at the moment. But nearly a third of respondents — 30 percent — living within a mile of data centers say the issue will play a role in the November elections, a significantly higher share than the 17 percent who say the same among Americans overall.
“The only people that are particularly exercised are the ones that are navigating [data centers] in their communities,” said Michigan-based GOP strategist Jason Roe. “I don’t think it’s yet broadly an issue that people have wrapped their heads around enough to have an opinion.”
Still, most voters expect the issue to rise, though they’re split on when that will happen. Just one in four Americans said they “don’t think data centers will ever play a role in elections in my area.”
“This is a political bomb waiting to go off,” said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of the clean-energy group Evergreen Action. “You’ve seen data centers go from a third-tier issue to a top-tier issue in politics in the span of a year. … And there are some people who are going to have success riding that wave politically.”
