As Trump pushes for data centers, voters in key midterm races say they don’t want them

Key Points:

• Dawn Vogel, a Republican county supervisor in Buchanan County, Iowa, supports a moratorium on data centers, aligning with prominent democratic socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders who propose a nationwide ban due to concerns over resource use.
• An NBC News poll shows 69% of respondents oppose AI data centers in their local areas, with opposition cutting across party lines, despite President Donald Trump's strong support for data centers as economic drivers.
• Voters express concerns about data centers driving up utility costs, overusing water resources, and benefiting corporations at the expense of local communities, fueling a populist coalition against their expansion.
• Some elected officials, including Ohio’s Sen. Jon Husted and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, have shifted from supporting data centers to advocating regulations that address their environmental and infrastructure impacts.
• While labor unions highlight the high-paying jobs created by data centers, local residents and workers call for collaboration between proponents and critics to mitigate negative effects and ensure sustainable development.