Left and Right Unite Against AI Data Centers in Rare Accord

In rural eastern Nebraska, a technology revolution could rise from fields of corn and soybean in the form of new data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom. But just as across much of the country, opposition has been building in ways that defy typical partisan boundaries. Conservative farmers and the state Sierra Club chapter recently found common cause against labor leaders as they filled the firehouse in Murdock — population around 275 — to share concerns about data center development moving too quickly.

The scene exemplified an unlikely coalition that worries about dwindling farmland, declining water supplies and rising electricity bills — not to mention how massive corporations could reshape small-town America into nodes in a national network of computing warehouses. The debate around data center projects is one of the rare modern issues to cut across party lines, demographics and geography — from Republican-dominated Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming to swing-state Pennsylvania to Democratic-leaning New Mexico.

A Rare Moment of Bipartisan Agreement

Public opinion has shifted dramatically against data centers in a remarkably short period. A Gallup poll from March found that 71% of Americans oppose constructing AI data centers in their local area, including 48% who are strongly opposed — making data centers less popular than nuclear power plants among local communities.

A Fox News poll conducted in July found voters oppose data centers by a 40-point margin, with 60% of Republicans and 53% of MAGA voters opposing construction in their area. An exclusive Heatmap Pro poll released in August found that 75% of Americans now say they would oppose a new data center being built near where they live, with more than six in 10 saying they would strongly oppose it.

The intensity of opposition has translated into concrete action. According to Data Center Watch, at least 75 data center projects worth approximately $130 billion were blocked or delayed by local opposition in the first quarter of 2026 — the largest single-quarter concentration of disrupted projects on record — with 833 active opposition groups operating across 49 states. The number of data center moratoriums in 2026 is already four times higher than all bans in 2025, and by August, 150 localities had banned data centers in a single month.

From Nebraska Farmland to New Mexico Water

Judy Stroy, a fifth-generation Nebraska farmer whose late husband grew corn and soybeans and whose son still does, worried that with “the amount of ground that’s getting gobbled up every year, our food source is in trouble.”

“That should scare everyone,” she said.

Stroy’s fields are just outside Murdock, in Cass County, where officials recently approved a 12-month moratorium on data center development. The freeze could affect energy company Tenaska’s plans to potentially option 1,300-plus acres of land along Highway 75, south of the nearby villages of Murray and Beaver Lake, in a project that activists fear would pave the way for a data center and its own natural gas power plant.

Local land typically can go for $10,000 an acre, residents say, and developers sometimes offer four times that, or even more. “What if somebody offered me $40,000 an acre for my ground? It would be hard to turn down,” Stroy conceded.

Nebraska Sierra Club attorney Ken Winston noted that tech giants have made donations to municipal programs in Lincoln to help mitigate the impact of data centers. “We need to be aware of the fact that they’re going to happen somewhere,” Winston said. “But communities need to be able to protect themselves and if they don’t want them, they should be able to say no.”

In New Mexico, concerns over dwindling water supplies are mounting around Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center complex planned by Oracle near the Mexican border. The New Mexico Supreme Court on Sunday granted an emergency petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, halting authorization to use water from a new well for the project’s construction until the legal fight is concluded. The court also paused an air quality permit proceeding.

“It is not about blue vs. red, or whether we’re a purple state or county,” said Samantha Barncastle Salopek, a longtime water attorney who is running as a Republican for a seat on the Doña Ana County Commission partly because of the project. “This is about the local community coming together and saying, ‘Hold on, hold on.’ We didn’t get enough information, and now we’re very concerned because also we have to cut back our water use anyway.”

Barncastle Salopek, whose family grows pecans, said she frequently fields worried calls from farmers, ranchers and local business owners across the political spectrum. “When we have to fight over the last piece of the pie, those big companies are going to win,” she said of pressure on remaining water supplies.

Governors and Candidates Respond to the Backlash

The political fallout has been swift. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered a one-year ban on large data centers, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said his administration would no longer prioritize data center projects for construction permits or lucrative tax exemptions unless they meet certain standards. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced a halt on approval of new data centers until audits determine their impact on the state’s electrical grid — where about 90% of new connection requests are data centers.

Abbott told ABC News that data centers hadn’t been working in collaboration with state or local officials and “basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them, and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.”

The issue has become a significant factor in the 2026 midterm elections, with candidates from both parties racing to distance themselves from projects that were once seen as economic development wins. The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a memo warning that the data center backlash is hurting GOP Sen. Jon Husted’s reelection bid in Ohio. Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers supports a one-year moratorium on data center construction, and Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, running for an open House seat, has pledged to halt their construction.

“If Silicon Valley wants to build their liberal empire, they can do it somewhere else,” Gray said in an ad.

Eight states in 2026 enacted legislation rolling back data center tax subsidies, while another 17 considered similar legislation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In Congress, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act in March, which would institute an immediate federal moratorium on AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place.

Labor Unions See Opportunity Amid Opposition

Data centers have found an ally in organized labor. Mike Gage, president and secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska State AFL-CIO, said he personally was worried that some workers are seeing their jobs replaced by AI, but that the centers can also create construction jobs and longer-term positions for people running the finished product.

“This problem is also a very big opportunity for some small communities,” Gage said.

Heather McKenzie, who works in labor relations in Lincoln, said putting more data centers in Nebraska can slow an exodus of skilled young people leaving the state. “I don’t think that enough people understand that this is going to create really good jobs,” she said. “I think a lot of people view it in a negative sense because it’s being sprung on them.”

Trump Champions Data Centers Despite Political Risks

President Donald Trump remains a leading champion for the data center industry, seeing it as critical to winning the AI race against China. He said last week that if he were a mayor or a governor with a chance to land a big data center, “I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.”

Trump has also conceded, however, that tech companies and developers maybe “can use a little public relations help.” His administration is pushing to help tech giants build and connect data centers to power plants and high-voltage power lines, and even convert Cold War-era uranium enrichment plants into data center complexes.

Yet the data center backlash has become one of the defining issues of the 2026 election cycle. As NPR reported, candidates across the political spectrum are trying to tap into the backlash, from Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, who released an “Ohioans-first data center pledge” calling for a moratorium on construction until legislation passes.

What to Watch For

The explosive energy demand of AI has set in motion the biggest-ever construction boom of natural gas-fired power plants, raising concerns about climate goals. Michigan, Oregon and Minnesota have enacted laws to protect emissions-free energy requirements by 2040.

With the midterm elections approaching, the data center issue shows no signs of fading. As the AP reported, the snowballing opposition has transformed the midterm election landscape, thrown a wrench into the plans of the world’s richest companies and brought perhaps the industry’s biggest booster, President Trump, to its defense.

The question now is whether the industry and its political allies can find a path forward that addresses the legitimate concerns of communities across America — or whether the backlash will continue to grow as the 2026 elections approach. For many residents in places like Murdock, Nebraska, and Doña Ana County, New Mexico, the answer will determine the future shape of their communities for generations to come.