Led by socialist Democrats and foreign billionaires, the anti-data center movement has gained significant momentum. A new Gallup poll has found that seven in every 10 Americans now oppose new data center construction near their homes. Conservative leaders must do better at pushing back against hysterical claims of activists and making the case for more energy, more infrastructure, and more wealth creation.
In some ways, the anti-data center movement is not new. Opportunistic politicians capitalized on fear of the unknown to win votes opposing steam power, railroads, electricity, highways, cell towers, and fracking. Fortunately, in each case, opponents of development lost, and the result was that the United States became the world’s preeminent economic and military power.
Opposition to data centers has become bipartisan but is largely driven by Democrats. Although 71% of all Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities, that is 75% of Democrats and a somewhat lower 63% of Republicans. Socialists Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lead the fight against data centers at the federal level, sponsoring the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, which would temporarily ban all data center construction. Their efforts are supported by a network of Leftist activist organizations such as Indivisible, the Sierra Club, and Americans for Financial Reform, which are funded by foreign billionaires including George Soros and Hansjoerg Wyss.
According to Gallup, the main reasons Americans oppose data centers are their high water and power usage, and artificial intelligence replacing human workers. These concerns are not completely unfounded, but have been blown out of proportion by activists and Democratic politicians.
A 2026 Institute for Energy Research analysis found that the price of electricity in the 10 states with the heaviest presence of data centers averaged 14.46 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2025, not much more than the 14.39 cents average in the other 40 states. States with faster electricity-sales growth also saw smaller price increases over the decade. Data-center builders almost always promise new generation — from gas to nuclear to renewables. What really drives up electricity costs are the retirement of fossil-fuel power stations, pipeline restrictions, permitting delays, and mandates pushed by the Leftist groups who blame data centers.
The AI job panic is not supported by labor-market evidence. Yale’s Budget Lab finds no statistically or economically significant effect of AI on employment or wages, and the OECD similarly reports little evidence of significant impact on employment. Even software developers, the supposed canaries in the coal mine, are projected by BLS to add more than 300,000 jobs from 2023 to 2033. The real story is not mass unemployment but transition. Workers with AI skills are becoming more valuable, while some entry-level white-collar positions face pressure. That is a training challenge, not a reason to stop technological progress.
Data center construction is not an economic issue only. It is also a national security imperative. Artificial intelligence will shape warfare, cyber defense, intelligence gathering, drug discovery, energy management, manufacturing, and logistics. That requires massive computing power. China understands this and is not hesitating to build the data centers and energy infrastructure needed to dominate AI. If Democrats and their foreign billionaire funders choke off data center construction in the United States, they will produce a decisive technological advantage to Beijing, which is perhaps one of their intentions. America cannot win the AI race by refusing to build the infrastructure AI requires.
Data center doomers exploit fear to deliver decline. America needs power, infrastructure, and computing capacity to lead the technological revolution. Conservatives should not apologize for growth. They should champion it, build it, and defeat activists who would rather make America poorer, weaker, and dependent on China.