Voters don't like data centers. They really don't like them close to home

A new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds broad, cross-partisan resistance to data center construction, especially when it's proposed nearby. Fifty-eight percent of voters think new data centers built by companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI will hurt the country overall, and 65% oppose one being built in their own community, with 43% strongly opposed. Only a quarter of voters back construction, according to PBS NewsHour.

The resistance doesn't split cleanly along regional or partisan lines. Opposition to local projects ran above 60% no matter whether people lived in cities, suburbs, small towns or the countryside, and more than 80% of Democrats were against construction. Republicans were nearly split, with 46% favoring construction and 44% against, though MAGA supporters were the exception — the only group in which a majority welcomed data centers nearby.

The issue has already reshaped politics and business. Data Center Watch found roughly 75 projects worth about $130 billion were delayed or blocked in the first quarter of 2026, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee privately called data centers a "sleeper issue" for the midterms, per a memo obtained by Axios. The House passed bipartisan legislation last week pushing state regulators to require the companies help cover local electrical grid upgrades. Trump has warned on social media that communities resisting construction risk becoming "backwards and poor" and claimed China benefits from the pushback. Strategists Melik Abdul and Joel Payne, along with Marist pollster Lee Miringoff, said Trump remains out of step with his own party's base on this issue.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →