Article By Sophie Hurwitz
Americans who live near data centers—specifically, within a mile or so—have become more likely than others to vote for Democrats this cycle, a new YouGov/Economist survey suggests.
Since May alone, the share of people living near data centers who plan to vote Democratic has risen from 54 percent to 61 percent, according to the poll, released October 12. Nationwide, voter preferences have shifted too, but by a much smaller margin: from 53 percent to 55 percent.
Over the past year, developers have secured land leases and begun construction on new “hyperscale” data centers at a dizzying rate—often operating too fast to, or simply choosing not to, involve nearby communities much in the zoning process. This dynamic is mostly playing out in rural and suburban areas, where, across the political spectrum, nobody seems to want to play host to a neighborhood data center.
It’s easy to see why. Data centers need significant space, energy and water to operate, and they don’t provide many jobs relative to the investment they require. And they’re often unpleasant neighbors: their cooling systems can be noisy, and a growing number include onsite gas turbines that belch black smoke into the air. Town councils and zoning commissions across the country are unsurprisingly finding themselves the sites of anti-data-center protest.
Data Center Opposition Report, a recently launched website tracking opposition to data center development across the country, counts at least 268 local opposition groups across 37 states, which it says are organizing more than 300,000 people. Planned data center projects worth more than $260 billion have already been canceled in 2026, per the climate outlet Heatmap.
And politicians are paying attention: candidates from both parties are incorporating anti-data-center populism into their campaign promises. Donald Trump has bucked that trend, stating that towns that say no to data centers will be “backwards and poor,” and that Americans should let data centers “reign.”
This, it seems, has not been enough to convince those communities, most of which historically lean Republican. 75 percent of data centers under construction, and 80 percent of data centers in the planning stage, are in red states, according to data shared with CBS by Cleanview Research, a company tracking data center development.
Some Republicans are flipping on data centers. One Alabama gubernatorial hopeful who called data center fears “bullcrap” in July, for example, is now running on a strict regulatory platform. But the GOP overall has not been able to produce coherent messaging on data centers as a quality of life issue. The new poll is one of several to suggest that upcoming midterm election results may reflect that.
As Ohio anti–data center activist Nick Owens recently told News 5 Cleveland, “The only way they’re going to wake up, whether it’s either party, is on November 3. People who are silent to the data center issue will find out, but frankly, both parties are complicit.”
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