Hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing through the artificial intelligence industry and new AI tools seem to be popping up everywhere you look — but most Americans are not big fans of where things are headed. Nearly half of the country holds a negative view of AI, and seven in 10 Americans do not want a data center built in their area. The battle over the construction of these centers has been heating up in recent months, and opposition to them is notably bipartisan.
From red states like North Carolina to blue states like Oregon, communities are forcefully pushing back against plans to build new data centers. Residents in these areas have expressed concerns about electricity prices, water usage, air and water pollution, tax breaks for developers, and familiar landscapes being taken over by Big Tech infrastructure.
In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, vetoed a bill last month that would have created the first statewide data center moratorium, arguing that she wanted to avoid killing a data center development in the town of Jay. Maine State Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport) introduced that bill, and tells Rolling Stone she put it forward because of concerns she’s heard from residents of the state.
“Governor Mills put together an AI task force in December of 2024. Their report came out in October of 2025, and it talked about Maine citizens’ fears around data centers, with their energy use and environmental impact, and it talked about the need for a playbook,” Sachs says.
Sachs doesn’t want to permanently ban data centers, but she feels the state needs to take a beat before any construction can start and figure out what will be best for residents. “There is research showing that these [data centers] do not create jobs. There’s a fallacy around job creation,” Sachs says. “What I’ve constantly said is that this was simply about giving us time … because the impact of these particular developments goes far beyond the locality where they’re sited.”
The people of Maine aren’t happy with Mills vetoing this legislation, Sachs says, because they’re worried about their electricity bills going up and the environment being harmed if data centers start being built. In a state that relies heavily on heating during the winter, Sachs says she also worries about grid reliability.
Data centers are essentially warehouses filled with the specialized processors that power artificial intelligence, which is incredibly energy intensive. Data centers can use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day to cool these processors, and require megawatts of power. The industry’s growth will be hampered without enough new data centers, thus the industry’s to construct them across the nation.
Megan Mullin, faculty director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, says the issue is so bipartisan because it touches on something every American cares about.
“Amid so much partisan division, opposition to data centers seems to be the thing that unites Americans right now,” Mullin says. “It’s tempting to attribute this resistance to a growing wariness about technology and the titans who control it, but in reality it’s rooted in the one thing that has always united Americans: our deep affinity for where we live.”
The intensity of the opposition to data centers, and AI more generally, has caught some experts by surprise. Ben Green, an assistant professor of information and public policy at the University of Michigan, says he didn’t expect people to become so invested in this debate.
“It’s kind of amazing just how much it’s become such a hot-button issue,” Green says. “I think of it as the sort of issue that brings people together because there are so many things to dislike about it. You may have some people who come to it from an environmentalist perspective, some who don’t want this sort of external industry coming in without their say and some who are concerned primarily about affordability and electricity prices.”
Green says it doesn’t help the AI industry that people see data centers as something that will mainly benefit extremely wealthy tech companies, which weren’t particularly popular even before they started shoving AI in everyone’s face and, with data centers, into their physical communities.
What remains to be seen is how much this backlash against data centers will affect upcoming elections. The AI industry is pouring a lot of money into elections already. Candidates from Virginia to Wisconsin are running against them. “We’re dealing with the biggest companies on the planet,” Virginia Delegate John McAuliff said last year. “So we need to make sure Virginians are benefiting off of what they do here, not just paying for it.”
Green says he thinks it could become a defining issue, and people might decide to support or oppose a candidate based on where they stand on AI and data centers.
“I think the effect might be more pronounced in certain states, or even regions,” he says. “I think people recognize this as a useful barometer of the types of commitments and priorities that politicians have. People very much recognize data centers as being about big industry against the local community. Understanding where a candidate stands on data centers is useful for understanding where they stand on representing the interests of regular people against the powerful lobby of tech barons and other industries.”
Sachs says she thinks it’ll be a significant issue going forward in her state. Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has already voiced his support for a federal moratorium on data center construction, and Gov. Mills dropped out of the Senate race not long after she vetoed Maine’s moratorium bill. She was trailing Platner substantially in the polls.
“I hope every Mainer asks their candidates about this issue,” Sachs says. “Where do they stand? Where did they stand on the [moratorium] bill?”
This issue may become a litmus test for voters across the country. There appears to be more opposition to data centers and AI on the left than on the right, but it is clearly something that people are concerned about regardless of their party. While Washington is dragging its feet on putting any regulations on the AI industry — and in the case of President Donald Trump, actively fighting regulation of the well-moneyed industry — voters are making sure their local leaders know how they feel about what happens in their states.
