---
title: Data Centres Became a Midterm Issue After Most Americans Said No to One Next Door
description: 57% of Americans oppose a data centre in their community. How AI data centres and electricity bills became a 2026 midterm election issue.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.051Z
updated: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.068Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/data-centres-midterms-voters
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-4508751.webp
categories: Politics, Artificial Intelligence
content_type: News
region: United States, Georgia
publication: Sovereign Magazine
---

Most Americans do not want an artificial intelligence data centre built near their home, and during the 2026 midterm campaign that view crossed party lines. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,531 adults published on 11th June, 57% said they would oppose a data centre in their community, including two-thirds of Democrats and half of Republicans. Only 14% said they would be comfortable with one nearby.

The same poll found that 33% of Americans thought building data centres at a rapid pace was mainly a good thing, while 64% disagreed. That puts most of the country at odds with the Trump administration, which has made rapid AI development a priority, citing competition with China, and has directed federal agencies to speed up permits for the infrastructure behind it.

## Why AI Data Centres Worry Voters

The objections are practical. AI data centres consume large amounts of electricity and water, take up big areas of land and employ relatively few people once construction ends. The International Energy Agency estimates that a typical AI data centre uses as much electricity as 100,000 homes. When a project of that size connects to a local grid, residents want to know who will pay for the new power plants and transmission lines it needs.

There are 710 data centres operating in the United States and another 1,062 planned, according to research firm Cleanview, as reported by Reuters. Fourteen states have considered or are considering a moratorium on new projects.

## Electricity Bills on the Ballot

The first warning came a year ago. In the November 2025 elections, electricity costs were a central issue in the races for governor in New Jersey and in Virginia, a data centre hotspot. In Georgia, Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents from the Public Service Commission, the body that sets the rates Georgia Power charges its customers.

One of the winners, Peter Hubbard, accused the Republican commissioners of rubber-stamping rate increases. He has since questioned whether data centres will pay their fair share of Georgia Power's plan to spend about $15 billion on new generating capacity, most of it to serve them. Two of the five seats on that commission were on Tuesday's ballot, including the one Hubbard won last year.

## Where Democrats and Republicans Split on Data Centre Limits

The opposition is bipartisan, but it is stronger on one side. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October found that 69% of Democratic registered voters backed limits on building data centres, compared with 43% of Republicans.

In the final Reuters/Ipsos poll before election day, conducted from 29th October to 2nd November among 1,765 adults, 42% of registered voters said limiting the construction of AI data centres was a very important issue or the most important one. The cost of living still came first, named as the top issue by 48% of registered voters. For many households the two concerns meet in the same place: the monthly electricity bill.

## Why Investors Are Watching the Results

Wall Street is paying attention. Reuters reported in October that investors see the backlash as a risk to the AI trade, which has lifted US stock markets since ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and rests heavily on how much a handful of large technology companies spend on data centres.

Much of the power over those projects sits with state and local government. Zoning, tax incentives and the power contracts a new facility needs are decided by county boards, legislatures and utility commissions rather than by Congress. Maxwell Shulman, a policy research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors in Washington, told Reuters that the party that wins control in those races could shape the restrictions data centres face in future.

That makes the down-ballot results as important to the AI buildout as the fight for the House and Senate. Many of the officials elected this week will rule on pending projects, and the polling gives them little reason to wave those projects through without conditions on cost, water and power.