Widespread voter opposition to artificial intelligence data centers has emerged as a key issue in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, creating political headwinds for President Donald Trump and Republican candidates in key battleground states like Ohio. Despite polls showing 65% of Americans oppose local data centers, Trump has aggressively promoted the infrastructure buildout. In response, local communities are advancing ballot measures to ban developments over grid strain and land displacement.
Data center opposition
- ▪Community activists in Grove City, Ohio, collected signatures to place a charter amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot requiring public votes on industrial developments.
- ▪In Pataskala, Ohio, residents posted lawn signs reading VOTE YES TO BAN DATA CENTERS ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
- ▪In a September 2026 UMass Amherst poll directed by Tatishe Nteta, 65% of Americans opposed local artificial intelligence data center construction, while 11% supported it.
- ▪Activists in Ohio formed Conserve Ohio to draft ballot initiatives that would ban data center construction, alter zoning rules, or mandate voter approval for large facilities.
- ▪Voters in at least three dozen U.S. cities, counties, and townships will consider November 2026 ballot measures to restrict or ban local data center construction.
Midterm election impact
- ▪A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo warned in August 2026 that voter anger over data centers was hurting Republican candidate Jon Husted in Ohio.
- ▪Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown and Republican U.S. Senator Jon Husted were statistically tied in a New York Times poll for Ohio's 2026 Senate race.
- ▪U.S. Senator Jon Husted proposed legislation requiring data center operators to cover their own electrical infrastructure costs, which Senate Democrats blocked in September 2026.
- ▪Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on new grid connections for data centers in August 2026 amidst political pushback during the gubernatorial campaign.
Environmental resource consumption
- ▪Data centers consumed 4.7 percent of total United States electricity in 2024, up from 4.4 percent in 2023, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- ▪U.S. data centers directly consumed an estimated 66 billion liters of water in 2023, according to a 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report.
- ▪The Electric Reliability Council of Texas evaluated roughly 474 gigawatts of grid interconnection requests in July 2026, with 90 percent coming from data centers.
- ▪More than 80 gas-burning power plants were proposed or under construction nationwide to power data centers, according to Environmental Integrity Project estimates.
Republican voter backlash
- ▪President Donald Trump's approval rating in Ohio dropped to 38% in October 2026, with 60% of surveyed residents disapproving of his job performance.
- ▪Longtime Republican voters in battleground states expressed anger over Donald Trump's trade tariffs after factory closures and layoffs affected local manufacturing jobs.
- ▪Longtime Ohio Republican voter Patty Spillman stated she will abstain from voting in the 2026 midterms due to GOP support for data centers in Grove City.
- ▪Former clockmaker employee Mark Vandermeer lost his job after Howard Miller closed its Zeeland, Michigan factory due to tariff costs on imported components.
Local community displacement
- ▪Neighboring property owners in Grove City, Ohio, accepted developers' monetary offers to sell their farms for data center expansion.
- ▪Residents in Franklin County, Kansas, organized local opposition after city commissioners approved a proposed data center without prior public consultation or input.
- ▪Real estate developers offered Ohio farmer Patty Spillman $1.5 million to purchase land near Grove City for an artificial intelligence data center, which she refused.
Trump AI infrastructure push
- ▪President Donald Trump held campaign rallies across eight cities in October 2026 to encourage Republican base turnout ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
- ▪President Donald Trump declared in August 2026 that communities rejecting data centers want to end up backwards and poor rather than successful and rich.
- ▪During an October 2026 rally in Vandalia, Ohio, President Donald Trump urged supporters to vote for Republican candidates Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy.
- ▪More than 1,500 data centers were under development across the United States in 2026 to support artificial intelligence, according to Pew Research Center.
Debatable claims
- ▪GOP support for AI data centers is eroding the party's rural and suburban voter base
- ▪Municipalities should require voter approval for large industrial developments
- ▪The economic benefits of AI data centers outweigh their local environmental and infrastructure costs
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