Data Centers Unite Left and Right in Rare Bipartisan Backlash
Intra-Party Split Detected
Backlash against data centers cuts across party lines, breaking from traditional pro-growth GOP and pro-tech Democratic positions. Republicans like Abbott and Husted-aligned officials face pressure from their party's traditional business/investor allies even as grassroots conservatives revolt, while Democrats like Shapiro who previously touted data center investment now face primary and general election pressure from environmentalists and populists within their own coalition.
Left says
- •Data centers echo fossil-fuel infrastructure fights, serving as a proxy for broader anxieties about AI's unchecked growth and climate impact.
- •Communities feel steamrolled by a 'tech bro' approach that touts economic benefits without genuinely listening to local concerns about noise, water depletion, and rising utility bills.
- •Elected officials like Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro are reversing course on previously touted data center investments because constituents are demanding accountability and limits.
- •Tech companies deflect blame onto a few unnamed 'bad actors' rather than committing to enforceable guardrails, a tactic reminiscent of pipeline companies' past rhetoric.
Right says
- •Government-imposed moratoriums and restrictions risk killing beneficial economic development based on public sentiment rather than sound policy analysis.
- •There's no historical precedent showing that Americans rejecting new infrastructure development ultimately benefits them, suggesting today's backlash could backfire economically.
- •Governor Abbott's guardrails approach shows a middle path is possible: require data centers to bring their own power, reuse their own water, and avoid straining local grids rather than banning them outright.
- •Industry leaders like Coinbase's Brian Armstrong worry that even business-friendly states like Texas are caving to what they see as uninformed public pressure, undermining investment certainty.
Common Take
High Consensus- Data center opposition has grown rapidly and crosses party lines, appearing in Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania races alike.
- Rising utility bills, water consumption, and strain on local power grids are the central practical concerns driving public frustration.
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott's shift from welcoming data centers to imposing a construction pause illustrates how quickly the politics have changed.
- Data centers are becoming a defining issue in the 2026 midterms, with candidates on both sides campaigning against them or being attacked over them.
The Arguments
Left argues
Data centers impose real, concentrated local costs — noise, water depletion, and rising utility bills — while communities feel steamrolled by developers who tout economic benefits without genuinely engaging local concerns, echoing the 'social license' failures of fossil-fuel infrastructure fights.
Right counters
There is no historical precedent showing that Americans rejecting new infrastructure ultimately benefits them economically; moratoriums driven by poll-tested public sentiment risk killing investment and jobs based on emotion rather than sound cost-benefit analysis.
Right argues
Guardrails, not bans, are the right approach — Governor Abbott's model requiring data centers to bring their own power, reuse their own water, and avoid straining local grids shows industry can be held accountable without sacrificing the economic upside of development.
Left counters
Tech companies have a long history of promising self-regulation while deflecting blame onto a few unnamed 'bad actors,' just as pipeline companies once did; without enforceable, specific commitments, 'guardrails' rhetoric can be a stalling tactic rather than genuine reform.
Left argues
The reversal of pro-development politicians like Josh Shapiro reflects genuine democratic responsiveness — when constituents across the political spectrum demand accountability over noise, water use, and utility costs, elected officials adjusting course is government working as intended, not government failing.
Right counters
Policy driven by rapid shifts in public mood — Abbott going from welcoming data centers to a sweeping moratorium in three months — creates dangerous investment uncertainty; industry leaders like Brian Armstrong warn that even business-friendly states caving to uninformed pressure undermines the predictability that long-term infrastructure investment requires.
Right argues
Data centers deliver broad, diffuse economic benefits — jobs, tax revenue, and the infrastructure underlying everyday internet use and AI innovation — that get discounted when policy is made reactively in response to vivid but narrow local complaints.
Left counters
Diffuse economic benefits don't erase concentrated harms; residents living next to a facility consuming millions of gallons of water daily and driving up their electric bills have a legitimate claim that abstract macroeconomic gains shouldn't override their immediate quality of life.
Left argues
Data center opposition functions as a proxy for deeper anxieties about AI's unchecked growth and climate impact, much as fossil-fuel fights were about more than any single pipeline — making the backlash a legitimate referendum on how much power society cedes to Big Tech without consent.
Right counters
Treating data centers as a symbolic stand-in for AI anxiety conflates distinct issues — legitimate local grid and water concerns can and should be addressed through targeted regulation, but using that backlash to justify broad moratoriums risks throttling a technology with enormous economic and strategic value based on generalized unease.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If communities' immediate, poll-driven objections to data centers are treated as decisive democratic input deserving swift policy reversals, why shouldn't the same standard apply to other unpopular-but-beneficial infrastructure the left supports, like renewable energy transmission lines or wind farms that also face local backlash?”
Left asks Right
“If the market and self-imposed 'guardrails' like Abbott's are sufficient to address data centers' strain on water and power, why did it take a sweeping government-imposed moratorium — not voluntary industry action — to actually change company behavior?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Activists like Jane Kleeb and celebrity voices like Willie Nelson and Jason Kelce (with the 'send your pee to data centers' campaign) represent a more theatrical, degrowth-oriented anti-AI wing, roughly 10-15% of the left, that frames this as an existential climate/tech fight rather than a narrower NIMBY utility-cost concern shared by most Democrats.
Right Fringe
Tech industry figures like Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO) and free-market purists at National Review represent a small but vocal faction, roughly 15-20% of the right, insisting any restriction is economically self-destructive; most rank-and-file Republicans, especially in affected communities, are more sympathetic to local grid/water concerns than this laissez-faire minority.
Noise Assessment
High performative amplification: celebrity stunts, viral social media campaigns, and political ad wars (Hinojosa vs. Abbott, Kaptur vs. her opponent) are amplifying the issue's visibility well beyond how deeply most Americans have engaged with data center specifics, though the underlying discontent over utility bills appears genuinely widespread and polling-backed.
Sources (6)
<p>Data centers have become the face of <a href="https://www.axios.com/technology/automation-and-ai" target="_blank">AI</a> backlash, with celebrities, politicians and protesters pushing to slow their growth.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> America's sharply rising public opposition to data centers — which fuel our everyday use of the internet — could pose an <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/19/data-centers-ai-political-opinion" target="_blank">existential threat</a> to AI's growth.</p><hr /><p><strong>State of play:</strong> There are at least <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/18/data-center-growth-map-states" target="_blank">4,000 data centers</a> nationwide, with some 3,000 under construction or planned.<strong> </strong></p><ul><li>The centers are often <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2026/05/11/charlotte-data-center-boom-electric-bills-water-use-noise-concerns" target="_blank">big, windowless warehouses</a> with few people in sight, and many are developed in <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13072026/alabama-data-center-non-disclosure-agreement/" target="_blank">secrecy</a>.</li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news:</strong> Data centers have <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/06/22/ai-data-center-backlash-poll" target="_blank">become a focus</a> of anti-AI sentiment, with <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx" target="_blank">70% of Americans</a> opposing data center construction in their area.</p><ul><li>Former NFL star Jason Kelce announced a partnership between his Garage Beer company and Liquid Death to encourage Americans to <a href="https://www.adweek.com/creativity/liquid-death-and-garage-beer-urge-americans-to-send-their-pee-to-data-centers/" target="_blank">send actual urine</a> to data centers in protest of their water use.</li><li>Nationwide, Republicans are warning that toxic views of U.S. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/17/openai-nvidia-ohio-data-center-sb-energy" target="_self">data centers</a> are directly impacting political outcomes, potentially upending years of support from the GOP and investors for their construction. </li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out:</strong> Data centers have long existed. But the ones helping train AI models are not your grandparents' <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-data-center" target="_blank">data centers</a>.</p><h2>How data centers work (a simple explanation)</h2><p><strong>How it works:</strong> <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-demand-from-ai" target="_blank">Data centers</a> typically house rows of powerful computers called "servers," which help us stream videos, search the internet, email and play online games.</p><ul><li>Servers generate a lot of heat. The buildings require cooling technology and large amounts of water to keep the computers from overheating.</li></ul><p><strong>Data centers</strong> are the infrastructure <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/data-center/" target="_blank">behind</a> the internet and the cloud.</p><ul><li>Want to watch Netflix, send an email or scroll Facebook? All of these apps rely on the computers stored in data centers.</li><li>This means your phone doesn't need the space and memory to hold all of Netflix's library on its own.</li></ul><img src="https://images.axios.com/p8OrCRP2t4DHsJ5fB22iJ9GZDGw=/2026/08/19/1787161274740.jpeg" /> <div>Electrical equipment fills a room at NTT Data's Dallas TX1 data center in Garland, Texas. Photo: Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News via Getty Images</div><h2>How do data centers help AI?</h2><p><strong>Newer data centers </strong>provide the computing power behind AI, requiring massive amounts of infrastructure and power.</p><ul><li>The servers contain <a href="https://www.five9sdigital.com/knowledge/how-data-centers-are-enabling-artificial-intelligence-ai/" target="_blank">specialized chips</a>, like graphics processing units (GPUs), that perform the calculations needed to train and run AI models. </li><li>Engineers guide the process, but the servers do most of the work.</li></ul><h2>The arguments against data centers</h2><p><strong>The criticisms are</strong> tied to water and power use, as well as effects on local environments and communities.</p><ul><li>The backlash has surfaced in political races in <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2025/04/23/michigan-data-center-environment-concerns" target="_blank">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/08/19/where-tom-tiffany-and-david-crowley-stand-on-wisconsin-data-centers/91304078007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=false&gca-epti=z11xx54p118850c118850u004354e1162xxv11xx54&gca-ft=105&gca-ds=sophi" target="_blank">Wisconsin</a>, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/14/texas-data-center-approval-pause-ercot-power-grid/" target="_blank">Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/19/gop-data-center-memo-ai-election" target="_blank">Ohio</a>.</li><li>Critics argue the data centers' <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/executive-summary%C2%A0" target="_blank">electricity use</a> can extend <a href="https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-center-buildout-is-hungry-for-fossil-fuels" target="_blank">fossil-fuel</a> demand and that their generators can create <a href="https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/clean-air-act-resources-data-centers" target="_blank">air pollution</a>.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom in: </strong>Data centers can be designed to be energy-efficient. Before the AI boom, the cloud computing industry focused on renewables, building locations near wind or other power sources.</p><ul><li>The AI buildout has pushed some developers toward gas turbines and other fossil-fuel sources.</li></ul><img src="https://images.axios.com/zGw-e3AqojDI6Ui99kkdG7zc7Cg=/2026/08/19/1787169551908.jpeg" /> <div>Cooling fans and generators at a Digital Realty data center next to a power substation in Ashburn, Va., in November 2025. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images</div><h2>Do data centers really use that much power and water?</h2><p><strong>Friction point: </strong>Data centers' power and water use remains <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/boulder/2026/07/16/ai-data-center-water-regulations-cu-boulder" target="_blank">a core argument</a> against their construction.</p><p><strong>By the numbers: </strong>Globally, data centers consumed about 1.5% of global electricity use in 2024, and the <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-demand-from-ai" target="_blank">International Energy Agency</a> estimates the share will rise to 3% by 2030.</p><ul><li>A <a href="https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/publications/united-states-data-center-energy-2025" target="_blank">Berkeley Lab report</a> updated in June estimates that U.S. data centers could consume 9.5% to 15.3% of U.S. electricity by 2030.</li></ul><p><strong>Data centers</strong> can need <a href="https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption" target="_blank">5 million gallons of water</a> a day for cooling alone. In 2023, <a href="https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/us_data_center_energy_usage_report_lbnl-2001637_0.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. data centers</a> consumed about 17 billion gallons of water, mostly for cooling, according to the <a href="https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/us_data_center_energy_usage_report_lbnl-2001637_0.pdf" target="_blank">Berkeley Lab report</a>.</p><ul><li>The Berkeley Lab says data centers also have an indirect water footprint of about 211 billion gallons to help produce the electricity that's consumed by data centers. The footprint varies by region.</li></ul><p><strong>Yes, but: </strong>Newer closed-loop designs can reuse water, cutting consumption.</p><ul><li>And, compared to other industries, data centers use far less water.</li><li>The cattle industry, power plants, residential water use, golf courses and steel production all use more water, per <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/06/25/water-energy-ai-flashpoint" target="_blank">data</a> reported on by Axios' Amy Harder.</li></ul><div>Data: Cleanview analysis of government, industry and academic sources, including <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/32d6m0d1" target="_blank">2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study</a>; Note: Power plants include fossil fuel and nuclear facilities. Data centers include on-site cooling and associated electricity generation; Chart: Amy Harder/Axios</div><h2>What's next in the data center fight</h2><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>Big Tech companies are all-in on getting data centers built.</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/17/openai-nvidia-ohio-data-center-sb-energy" target="_blank">Nvidia</a>, which designs the GPUs, is throwing billions of dollars into funding the infrastructure.</li><li>Tech companies are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/inside-big-techs-frantic-race-to-quell-the-growing-backlash-to-ai-2a717339" target="_blank">working to charm</a> local communities to make sure the projects are built.</li></ul><p><strong>What we're watching: </strong>How the backlash evolves and whether it becomes a major issue in the midterms and beyond.</p>
<p>Willie Nelson has become an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHob34QxEXQ" target="_blank">unlikely barometer</a> of America's biggest infrastructure fights. He once protested the <a href="https://2017-2021.state.gov/keystone-pipeline-xl/" target="_blank">Keystone XL pipeline</a> and fracking. Today, he's fighting data centers.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> The American icon's latest cause underscores how <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/07/18/how-data-centers-became-symbol-americans-rage/" target="_blank">the politics</a> surrounding AI infrastructure are beginning to resemble the last decade's fights over fossil fuels.</p><hr /><p><strong>"The last thing </strong>we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter)," <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbWVLCusfeD/?hl=en" target="_blank">Nelson told</a> his more than one million Instagram followers recently.</p><p><strong>Flashback:</strong> "For 29 years, corporations have continued to take the land away from the small family farmers, and this is what we're here to fight against," Nelson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czJWD29aHxI" target="_blank">said during</a> a 2014 Nebraska concert held to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.</p><p><strong>"We always listen to our Yoda,"</strong> joked Nebraskan activist Jane Kleeb, referring to Nelson.</p><ul><li>A leader of Nebraska's fight against the now-canceled Keystone XL pipeline, today Kleeb is active in the largely decentralized opposition to AI infrastructure.</li></ul><p><strong>The big picture:</strong> Data centers represent one of the fastest-growing, most bipartisan infrastructure backlashes in years.</p><ul><li>"We just want to make sure when these massive infrastructure projects are being built, that they're not leaving harms in the communities that will live with them forever," said Kleeb, who is co-founder of the nonprofit Bold Alliance and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party.</li></ul><p><strong>How it works:</strong> The parallels between the fossil fuel sector and data centers are striking.</p><ul><li>Tech companies <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7414146127391862785/?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A%28urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7414146127391862785%2CFEED_DETAIL%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse%29&originTrackingId=Z6niLTXZRLSRjK0Qw1jXWg%3D%3D" target="_blank">have been touting</a> how essential data centers are to our lives, which echoes how fossil fuel companies remind us we use oil and natural gas to move around.</li><li>Kleeb says many developers approach communities with a "tech bro" mentality that leaves residents feeling unheard.</li></ul><p><strong>What they're saying: </strong>"You don't get your social license to operate by telling everybody how they're going to do better economically," said Kevin Book, managing director at the nonpartisan research firm ClearView Energy Partners, whose clients include institutional investors and corporate leaders. </p><ul><li>"You get it by listening to their concerns and helping them process emotions." </li></ul><p><strong>Between the lines: </strong>Both fights are also proxies for larger fears: Data centers are to AI what fossil fuel infrastructure is to climate change.</p><ul><li>"What's interesting is they are both linked to this other obvious threat to people," said Michael Lazarus, senior scientist emeritus at the climate research group Stockholm Environment Institute. "Both are existential in their own way."</li></ul><p><strong>Friction point: </strong>Tech companies often say a few unnamed "bad actors" give everyone a bad reputation on data centers.</p><ul><li>"Pipeline companies used to say this, too," Kleeb said. "If that's true, name them and put out a set of policy suggestions that you believe are the proper guardrails around data centers."</li></ul><p><strong>The other side:</strong> That might be in the works, according to Dan Diorio, executive vice president of state policy and government affairs for the Data Center Coalition.</p><ul><li>"We are in the process of honing in on how to better demonstrate our commitments to these principles for responsible development," Diorio told Axios.</li><li>Those include open dialogues with communities, paying their fair share of power costs and efficiently using water, he added.</li><li>"One of the things that is very clear from the industry perspective is that we're catching up," said Diorio, whose <a href="https://www.datacentercoalition.org/members" target="_blank">group represents</a> roughly 50 companies across the value chain of AI.</li></ul><p><strong>Reality check:</strong> The comparison between data centers and fossil fuels isn't perfect, of course. For one, this cycle of opposition has developed faster and is more widespread.</p><ul><li>"It took us years to build our coalitions," Kleeb said of her days fighting the Keystone pipeline.</li></ul><p><strong>Stunning stat:</strong> In just three months, Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott went from welcoming data centers to <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2026/08/03/greg-abbott-halts-texas-data-centers-electric-grid" target="_blank">imposing a pause</a> while new rules are considered.</p><ul><li>"What happened in Texas and the governor is shocking in how quickly his posture changed," said Timothy Fox, an analyst who works with Book at ClearView Energy Partners.</li></ul><p><strong>What we're watching: </strong>Data centers are solidified as a top flashpoint in this year's midterm elections. Fox expects them to be "the most pressing energy topic before state legislatures next year."</p><p><strong>Zoom in:</strong> More state lawmakers are likely to consider imposing rules on power and water, along with repealing tax credits, Fox said.</p><ul><li>"It would be very difficult for lawmakers to argue that these companies with their significant financial wherewithal require tax exemption while the general public views data centers as the primary culprit for rising power prices," Fox said.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out:</strong> That's what happened with fossil fuels. States responded with stricter fracking regulations and, in some cases, higher taxes rather than shutting the industry down, Book said. Even after Keystone XL was canceled, most fossil fuel development continued.</p><p><strong>The bottom line:</strong> The fossil fuel industry had years to respond to growing local opposition. The AI industry may have only a matter of months.</p>
Data Center Backlash Brings Thousands Of Projects To A Screeching Halt
There are no obvious historical examples of Americans rejecting a new development and benefiting from that rejection. <img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/data-center-protest.jpg?fit=617%2C360&ssl=1" />
THE DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Americans’ growing opposition to the prevalence of data centers has led many politicians to limit or pause their increase altogether. Lawmakers in New York and Texas, for example, have effected stoppages of data center projects, while other states, such as Pennsylvania, have issued more restrictions on data center construction. Americans’ support...
This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here. Do the words “data center” make you want to drop everything and call your congressional representative? You’re not alone, if we judge the nation’s mood by the actions of politicians who poll-test what they […]