With Americans’ utility bills climbing by 21% in just the last three years, President Donald Trump is rightly focused on the affordability crisis and the urgent need for price relief. Solar energy is one of the nation’s lowest-cost and fastest-to-deploy energy resources — that’s why red states and a majority of Republican voters support its development to help bring down electricity costs.
In his State of the Union address, Trump underscored the need to unleash American energy and accelerate domestic growth. He highlighted the surge in new factories, expanding industrial capacity, and rising construction employment as proof that our country is building again.
The message was clear. To secure economic strength and global competitiveness, the United States must outproduce and outbuild its rivals.
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Trump is right to focus on American energy dominance; however, that dominance is not limited to producing more fuel. It requires adding reliable power supply quickly, cutting red tape, and enabling American industry to scale. Solar and storage fit squarely within both that effort and Trump’s vision to secure energy independence and lower the cost of living. It is one of the fastest ways to bring new American-generated power onto the grid, strengthen reliability, and help ease cost pressures for families and businesses alike.
Increasingly, Republican voters recognize that reality.
A recent poll by Fabrizio, Lee, and Associates showed 70% of Trump coalition voters support building more solar using American-made materials. And 75% of Trump voters in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas agreed that solar energy should be used in the U.S. to strengthen and increase our energy supply, according to a poll from Kellyanne Conway’s KA Consulting.
While Trump voters’ support for solar may seem surprising, Republicans have long embraced an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy. Letting the free market work and choose solutions with the lowest costs and shortest timelines could not be any more consistent with conservative principles.
In fact, red states are leading the way on solar. Nearly three-quarters of all solar capacity installed in the first nine months of 2025 was built in states won by Trump in the 2024 election. This includes eight of the top 10 states for new solar installations: Texas, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Arkansas.
Through the first three quarters of 2025, Indiana installed more solar power than all New England states combined, and Texas recently set a record by providing 60% of total demand by running more than 30,000 megawatts of solar. Another recent poll, by Conservatives for Clean Energy, found 67% of Florida voters are more likely to support a candidate who backs the continued growth of solar across the Sunshine State.
Red state economies continue to benefit from these deployments. Take Arkansas, for example. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) credited his state’s robust energy supply, including solar, for helping to attract Google, which plans to build a $4 billion data center in West Memphis.
In 2025, solar accounted for 85% of all new power added to the nation’s electricity grid during the first nine months of the Trump administration. These gains come at a pivotal moment. The rapid growth of AI, along with the necessary infrastructure to support it, is driving unprecedented demand on an aging electric grid.
Now more than ever, the U.S. needs energy sources that can be quickly deployed to support grid reliability and achieve American dominance in the AI race with China, which has a history of dominating global supply chains through state-backed industrial policy. Reasserting American leadership in solar and storage manufacturing would reduce reliance on Chinese materials while countering Beijing’s leverage over global clean energy markets.
High-profile supporters of Trump, including Elon Musk and conservative commentator Katie Miller, have sounded the alarm over making sure American solar production keeps pace with China. Data centers are not going to wait — they’ll look elsewhere to meet their energy needs if America falls behind.
Leaders in Washington should take a page from red states’ playbook and incentivize — rather than impede — solar deployment. Unfortunately, federal actions such as the Department of the Interior’s order to slow down the review of permits for solar projects risk decelerating that momentum by threatening projects already in the pipeline.
By providing clear guidance that solar projects will be treated in good faith and without unfair treatment based on energy source, regulators at Interior can put an end to business uncertainty and stimulate investment. Coupled with bipartisan energy permitting legislation, these reforms can help ensure that America, not Beijing, controls the solar supply chain.
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Red states and Republican voters recognize this reality. As Conway, a former top Trump adviser, concluded in her polling memo: “Solar should be seen not as government-favored or ideological. Instead, it should be evaluated in Washington the way voters across these states are assessing it; on the same terms as every other energy source, through the prisms of speed, cost, reliability, and ability to meet rising demand.”
Trump’s supporters back American-made solar with good reason. If unleashing American energy and the full force of the greatest economy in the world is the goal, solar must be part of that effort.
Mark Fleming serves as president and CEO of Conservatives for Clean Energy.