Every pollster in America is suddenly asking voters about data centers, and the results from California to Maine and everywhere in between are overwhelming: Americans hate the hulking, energy-sucking, water-chugging behemoths.
More than a dozen recent polls conducted for media organizations show widespread opposition to data centers, and a growing feeling among voters that the costs to communities outweigh the benefits of artificial intelligence, economic development or job growth.
Those numbers, added to recent election results and a growing cacophony of candidates on the campaign trail, give context to vocal opposition movements that have led to the delay or outright cancellation of projects in communities across the country.
Just a year ago, Americans were divided on whether they would support or oppose a data center being built where they live.
An August 2025 survey conducted by Embold Research for Heatmap News, which covers climate change and related issues, found that 43% of Americans said they would support the construction of a data center near them, while 42% were opposed.
The latest survey, conducted last month, found a complete collapse among supporters: Today, just 21% said they support data center construction near them, while 71% are opposed — including 55% who say they are strongly opposed.
Growing opposition to data centers is “mostly about energy costs,” said Mike Greenfield, chief executive of Embold Research. “Rightly or wrongly, people are increasingly tying data center development to the high cost of energy. That makes many people inclined to resist new data centers, especially if they are nearby.”
Other polls are similarly brutal for the fast-growing data center industry.
A Gallup poll released in May showed the share of Americans who oppose the construction of data centers in their area, 71%, was higher than the zenith of the opposition to the construction of nuclear power plants, which topped out at 63% in 2001. Respondents said they opposed data center construction because of water usage (18%), energy consumption (18%) and higher utility bills (15%).
In a Pew Research Center poll conducted in January, more respondents said data centers had mostly bad impacts on the environment, 39%, versus just 4% who said data centers were mostly good for the environment. More than a third, 38%, said data centers were mostly bad for home energy costs, compared with 6% who said data centers were mostly good.
A survey from Marquette Law School found 71% of voters nationwide said the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits, while 29% said the reverse. Voters said the development of AI is a bad thing for society, rather than a good thing, by a 65%-35% margin.
A YouGov poll taken for The Economist found just 23% of voters who said the construction of data centers are good for the country, while 48% said they are bad for the country. That same poll found 60% opposed to building a new data center in their community.
The industry itself points to substantial economic benefits that data centers provide. In an email, Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, said the industry supports 5.5 million jobs nationally and contributes $927 billion to the country’s gross domestic product — and $204 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2024 alone.
“The data center industry provides significant, tangible benefits that are currently being felt in local communities across the country, as the industry invests hundreds of billions of dollars to provide the essential digital infrastructure that enables the critical services and cutting-edge technologies driving our economy and enhancing our quality of life,” Levi said.
Individual state-level polls are beginning to ask voters their thoughts on data centers as well. An Emerson College poll conducted in Ohio in April found 55% oppose data center construction near them, while just 27% were in favor. In South Dakota, opposition outpaces support 51%-30%. In Georgia, opposition has grown 5 percentage points, to 47%, since December. And in California, opposition outpaces support by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 47%-24%.
A University of Massachusetts-Lowell poll of Maine voters found 72% were opposed to data center construction. Fox News released a survey this week showing 65% of Ohio voters saying they oppose data centers built to support artificial intelligence technology.
“The data centers backlash has been the fastest development in Wisconsin polling in my 15 years of the Marquette Law School poll,” said Charles Franklin, who conducts state and national surveys.
Franklin said the phenomenon is surprisingly bipartisan — making opposition to data centers the issue on which Democrats, Republicans and independent voters are most likely to agree.
“In short,” he said, “data centers don’t have a partisan friend.”
Levi, of the Data Center Coalition, agreed.
“Recent polling data reinforces our view of the importance of continued efforts to better educate and inform the public about the industry through community engagement and stakeholder education, including factual information about the industry’s responsible usage of water and our commitment to paying for the energy we use,” Levi said. “Data centers are committed to being responsible and responsive partners in the places where they operate.”
The polling results are beginning to be borne out in election results, and in campaigns ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Voters in Monterey Park, Calif., in the Los Angeles area, approved a ban on data centers by a 72-point margin, according to early returns. Voters in Festus, Mo., ousted four city council members who backed a new $6 billion data center project in an April vote.
Candidates in both parties are increasingly making opposition to data centers a pillar of their campaigns. In Wisconsin, all seven prominent Democrats running to succeed Gov. Tony Evers said they want to see more regulations — and even a moratorium — on data center construction.
“The fact is, these data centers feel as if they’re some sort of physical manifestation of everything we have ever been worried about,” former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, one of those candidates, said at a recent forum.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat seeking re-election, said data centers should supply their own energy sources to alleviate rising costs for ratepayers. His Republican opponent, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, one-upped Shaprio, promising a full pause in data center development should she win in November.
Franklin, the Marquette pollster, attributes the rapid backlash to a lack of pushback from the data center industry itself.
“Data centers don’t seem to have visible and active proponents, at least not in Wisconsin. They have very active opponents. So the messaging around data centers has been heavily one-sided,” Franklin said. “One pretty solid political science finding is that one-sided information flows move opinion much more than two-sided arguments. Right now data centers are heavily one-sided.”