Candidates in three states respond to voter concerns over data centers

Gallup: 7 in 10 Americans oppose AI data centers near them

Opposition to AI data center construction has moved to the front of 2026 midterm primary races, where candidates in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin are campaigning on restricting or halting new projects. Two months after OpenAI and Oracle broke ground on a massive data center campus in Saline Township, Michigan, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed held a rally in front of the site with community activists at his side.

“I stand with local and state elected officials saying that we cannot approve any more of these until we have federal-level guardrails,” El-Sayed said.

El-Sayed narrowly won his primary earlier this week. While data centers were not the centerpiece of his pitch to voters, they tie into his campaign themes of populist economics and getting money out of politics.

“Unless and until we protect local communities from the power of corrupting money and politics, we’re going to continue to see projects like this get pushed on to local communities despite themselves,” El-Sayed said.

A Gallup poll from earlier this year found 7 in 10 Americans oppose the construction of an AI data center in their area, and candidates across the political spectrum are responding to that sentiment.

In Ohio, Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy released an “Ohioans-first data center pledge” this week calling for legislation and, until it passes, a moratorium on data center construction in the state.

“A top concern I hear from Ohioans across our state — second only to property taxes — is the accelerating pace of data center expansion,” he said in a statement released by his campaign. “The data center industry has badly failed to earn the trust of millions of everyday Ohioans.”

Among the complaints he said he has heard are rising electric bills, noise, pollution and “the absence of clearly defined economic benefits for Ohio families.” Ramaswamy also called for data center companies to cover the power bills of people who live nearby.

The pledge followed Ohio Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton’s plan, released last month, for a “conditional moratorium” on data centers, along with her statement that “Ohio cannot trust Vivek Ramaswamy to protect communities from his fellow big-tech billionaires.”

In Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, Democrat William Lawrence said he did not set out to campaign against data centers, but the issue became a key plank in his platform because voters kept raising it.

“It wasn’t something that I expected to be part of the campaign last August because data centers weren’t on our radar,” he said. “But there have been four data centers proposed in the district since I declared my candidacy.” Lawrence won his primary against two more moderate Democrats.

In Wisconsin, calling for a moratorium on data center construction has helped Francesca Hong build a broad coalition as she runs for the Democratic nomination for governor.

“It’s time to press control+alt+delete to put a stop to this AI data center crisis, a full moratorium until we have the new regulations we need to protect our energy costs, our economy, our environment,” Hong said in a video released by her campaign. Voting ends Tuesday, and recent polls show Hong favored to win.

At a recent Hong campaign event, supporter Peggy McCrumb said she backs the candidate because of her position on data centers.

“I don’t think anyone wants data centers, and she’s the only one who stands up against it,” McCrumb said. “So she’s actually listening to what people want.”

Hong is a democratic socialist, but Amanda Litman, founder of Run For Something — an organization that works with Democrats running for state and local office — said the issue cuts through the usual partisan divides. She said data centers are the most tangible, physical representation of the threat people perceive from AI, whether it is higher energy prices or making jobs obsolete.

“We’re hearing it from urban, from rural, from suburban,” Litman said. “We’re hearing it in red states, blue states, purple states. It’s all kinds of communities, which I think is really speaking to how visceral people feel this is coming for them.”