Voters are disgusted by the unchecked expansion of AI data centers and made their concerns known across the country in Tuesday’s primary elections.
There were obvious signs this would happen that politicians across the country ignored — and they paid for it.
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A recent Gallup poll shows 71% of people oppose building AI data centers in their local areas, with broad agreement across the political spectrum.
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Here are just a few reasons why AI data centers are quite literally the worst.
First, consider their unchecked rollout. President Donald Trump’s July 2025 executive order dictated “the rapid and efficient buildout of this infrastructure by easing Federal regulatory burdens” on AI data centers. By one estimate, over 1,500 are in development, with 67% being built outside urban areas.
A second reason to be frightened? It’s nearly spooky season. AI‑driven facilities place monstrous demands on water supplies, power production, electric grids, and local infrastructure while largely escaping public scrutiny. Projects rocket forward under a dark veil as companies weaponize nondisclosure agreements that limit what public officials can share about water use, energy demand, or infrastructure costs. Community members are disempowered in this undemocratic process.
Next, these facilities are destructive to human health. Early analyses suggest the air pollution alone is going to kill us. In Mississippi, dozens of unpermitted gas turbines power xAI’s Colossus 2 data center are releasing smog-forming pollution. In Memphis, 35 unpermitted temporary gas turbines are exacerbating the health issues of an area already crushed by decades of pollution. Neighbors say asthma is worse and that the air carries a choking stench.
Yet another point of voter outrage: Billionaires (and a trillionaire) have jerry-rigged systems, negotiating outrageous tax breaks and ensuring that the people — not Silicon Valley — will pay for water and power needed to run AI data centers. Residential prices jumped at double the inflation rate in 2025, according to federal data, topping 20% in some states. AI data centers are a significant factor driving costs, according to media reports.
On all of the above, these companies say, “Just trust us!” And are we really going to take their word for it? They are fighting for the right to nudify kids. Minnesota passed the country’s first law to ban the practice, and Elon Musk‘s AI company, xAI, sued to halt it.
Big Tech says we need all of this for national security. Does that include spying on U.S. citizens with Flock cameras, which are so universally loathed people are chopping them down?
Another flimsy line? The facilities will stoke the economy and provide jobs. Yet locals are complaining all over social media that outsiders are being brought in from across state lines to complete construction work, and these factories in reality support very few long-term jobs.
Unsurprisingly, the people are in revolt. A sprawling movement spans at least 430 Facebook groups totaling over 525,000 members across the United States who oppose data centers, according to the Data Center Opposition Report. In the meantime, data center construction races forward, outpacing science, consumer information, and local debate.
Those activists sure got to the polls Tuesday.
In Kansas, Cindy Holscher won the Democratic gubernatorial primary against centrist candidate Ethan Corson. Voters sent a clear message that his centrist position on AI data center expansion in Kansas fell short. State Republicans nominated Ty Masterson despite attacks over tax incentives that paved the way for data centers in Kansas. But his stance was similar to Corson’s.
Residents in Festus, Missouri — a 12,000-strong city along the Mississippi River a half hour south of St. Louis — are fighting a $6 billion AI data center development. Grassroots groups educated voters, drove neighbors to the polls, and worked at polling places to spread the word. One Republican county candidate — there were no Democrats running for the seat — nabbed the vote after criticizing communication on the Festus project, beating several Republican candidates with no on-record statement on Festus.
Voters spoke in two closely watched Michigan races that greenlit two far-left candidates for the November election: Abdul el Sayed narrowly advanced in the state’s hotly contested U.S. Senate primary and will go head-to-head in the general election against Republican Mike Rogers. The progressive climate organizer William Lawrence won his Michigan Democratic House primary after rallying around a data center moratorium and faces Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) in November.
Expect more opposition to AI data centers as swing states like Wisconsin, which hosts its primary next week, including four Democratic candidates vying for a showdown with Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) in the general election. Only one candidate — socialist Francesca Hong — is on record for a Wisconsin AI data center moratorium.
We need a national moratorium on AI data centers right now, and in the meantime, states better pass their own efforts. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) signed off on a first-in-the-nation AI data center moratorium in her state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act to enact a reasonable pause on the development of AI to ensure the safety of humanity. As Wisconsin comedian Charlie Berens said at a recent community forum, opposition to these projects is “the most bipartisan issue since beer.”
Our federal lawmakers and elected officials better wake up and cosign.
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November’s going to be a slugfest. My advice to politicians who want to stay in office? Pay attention to your voters. Protect them — not Big Tech‘s bottom line.
Otherwise — you’re fired.
Juliana Keeping founded Keeping Strategies LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy communications firm specializing in moving evidence-based bipartisan reform at scale. Prior to founding her firm, she testified before Congress in the lead-up to landmark federal reform to lower drug prices and healthcare costs before supporting its rollout at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Juliana is a healthcare consumer advocate and media expert quoted in Forbes, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and numerous publications throughout the country. Follow her newsletter, Keeping Shop, on Substack or LinkedIn, or find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, or X.
