President Trump has been a vocal supporter of data centers, but GOP candidates in tight midterm races are increasingly taking a different tack

As data centers take center stage, Democrats and Republicans frequently are finding themselves in agreement on how they want to handle them.

Democrats and Republicans who struggle to find common ground on just about anything these days have discovered one topic in the midterm elections that they agree on: data centers.

They don't like them - so candidates from each party are working hard to show off their tough stances toward these facilities, in order to align with voters. On the campaign trail, it can feel like there's only one politician who supports data centers, and he isn't on the ballot this fall.

Republican candidates running in this November's midterm elections have shown a willingness to oppose the construction of new data centers in their states, even though President Trump is a staunch advocate of the facilities, which are essential to the booming artificial-intelligence industry.

Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio is one prominent example. Husted, who once welcomed the facilities to his state while serving as its lieutenant governor, has pivoted to touting his sponsorship of the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill that he introduced in the Senate in late July that aims to ensure that Americans don't have to pay for the electricity needed for new data centers. He's also stressing his support of local decision-making on the issue.

"The companies have the responsibility to do right by local people, or the local people should tell them 'no,'" Husted said in a TV interview last week. "My position is it should be up to local folks."

The House of Representatives was expected to vote Wednesday on its version of the Ratepayer Protection Act, but it's not clear if the bill will get the Senate's OK and become law before the midterms. The legislative effort is largely aiming to codify what many companies have already voluntarily agreed to through the Trump administration's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge," and critics say it doesn't do enough to help communities.

Husted's latest positioning has come after his Democratic opponent in their battleground race, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, launched an advertising campaign in early July that accused the Republican of "aggressively recruiting data centers" to Ohio for years. The campaign arm for Senate Republicans, the National Senatorial Republican Committee (NRSC), warned in a mid-August memo that data centers "are the anchor hanging around Husted's neck," and called for companies that need data centers to "fix how Ohioans see them." An advocacy group called Build American AI appeared to respond to that call in late August, announcing a plan to fund ads and other efforts in Ohio and additional states that make the case for data centers.

The NRSC may be "overstating the importance of data centers" in Ohio's Senate race, said Melissa Miller, a professor of political science at Bowling Green State University in northwestern Ohio. But she added that the issue is still key for voters because the facilities are so visible, even if doesn't rank as high as the cost of gasoline or other essentials.

"If you have one in your county, in your neighborhood or on your way to work, you see one - they are so large, you cannot not see it," Miller said.

Data centers have become a visible symbol of the divide between those who are thriving in the current economy and those who aren't, she noted. The issue can hurt Husted in part because, as a former lieutenant governor, he has been part of the Republican political leadership running Ohio and overseeing its initial embrace of data centers, Miller added.

Bowling Green's polling of Ohioans has found 71% are somewhat or strongly in favor of a temporary ban on data-center construction, with majorities viewing the facilities as bad for home energy costs, the environment and quality of life. Democrats express more opposition, but there is majority opposition among both Democrats and Republicans, Miller said.

"It does feel kind of remarkable, in terms of being so opposite of trends in party cooperation. That's all been going down the drain, and yet here's bipartisan agreement," the Bowling Green State professor told MarketWatch.

Protests against data centers have taken place across the country this year, according to an analysis from Dragonfly, a sister company to MarketWatch.

From Michigan to Texas

Trump hasn't backed down on his longstanding support of AI and data centers - but at times, he has signaled it's OK for his fellow Republicans to express opposition to the facilities.

"If a Republican's against a data center, that's OK with me," the president said in mid-August. "Generally speaking, if I ran a community, if I was a mayor or if I was a governor in a state, I would want to have the data centers because they bring tremendous income. They're clean, they produce their own energy - the new ones are producing their own energy."

At other times, he hasn't been as tolerant, saying in a social-media post in late August that communities will "end up being backwards and poor" if they don't welcome data centers. On Monday, Trump said he thinks there is a "SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China." That comment came as the top AI companies expressed support for slowing down development of their leading-edge models - though not of the data centers that they rely on.

Trump's defense of data centers is grounded in how the AI industry has been a major driver of the U.S. economy and the stock market SPX. He has also made the point that AI development is crucial to the U.S. in its competition with China. But nonetheless, Republicans are breaking with their party's leader on the issue.

Some 61% of Americans are somewhat or strongly opposed to the construction of new data centers in their area, up from 49% about four months earlier, according to survey results released last month by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. That includes 69% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans and 53% of independents.

"The bipartisan reaction is really striking - you just don't really see this on many issues any longer," said Matt Levendusky, a UPenn professor of political science and communication. It's "an issue where there is widespread public opposition in a way we don't see very much in our current political moment."

The narrative around energy-hungry data centers is that they're providing benefits to "a small number of companies and billionaires, and the costs will be borne by communities who host data centers" or by "white-collar workers who lose out to AI," Levendusky added. UPenn's polling found that Americans, on average, think AI will help in only one area: medical research.

In the swing-seat Senate race in Michigan, the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, has staked out an aggressive stance on AI issues. That's been followed by his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, announcing his support for a one-year moratorium on data-center construction in the state.

Rogers told the Detroit News last month that Michigan "needs stronger guardrails to protect community control, prevent utility price hikes, protect our water and stop pay-to-play schemes," so he's supporting a data-center moratorium "until we establish a fair, transparent approval process that puts local communities first." In late June, El-Sayed announced that he supports public ownership of AI companies, mirroring a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who typically votes with Democrats. But El-Sayed went further than Sanders by calling for public control of such companies through democratically elected or publicly appointed majorities on corporate boards.

The Senate race in Texas - which, like the Michigan and Ohio contests, is rated a "toss-up" by the Cook Political Report - also has seen jockeying around the issue of data centers. Republican nominee Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, rolled out a plan last month that calls for repealing tax breaks for data centers, prohibiting construction in rural neighborhoods and requiring the facilities to fund their own electricity needs. Democratic nominee James Talarico responded by blasting Paxton for previously voting to "flood Texas with data centers by giving them billions in tax handouts" while he was a state lawmaker, saying the Republican is now "making a sad attempt to reverse course."

The U.S. is more likely than any other country to see activism against data centers, according to an analysis from Dragonfly.

A lobbying group for data centers, the Data Center Coalition, told MarketWatch that the industry knows it needs to address the bipartisan backlash to its facilities.

"The industry understands the importance of continued efforts to better explain the role of data centers to the public through community engagement and stakeholder education, including factual information about the industry's responsible usage of water and our commitment to paying for the energy we use," said Dan Diorio, the coalition's executive vice president for state policy and government affairs, in a statement. He also cited a PwC report that found that data centers supported 5.5 million jobs in the U.S., contributed $927 billion to U.S. GDP and generated $204 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2024.

Political observers say the Republican pushback against data centers is likely to ramp up.

"I'd be shocked if every 2028 candidate didn't start to articulate plans for how they'll handle AI, how they want to regulate it," UPenn's Levendusky said. "This is going to be a part of our politics moving forward."

Now read: Building U.S. data centers is getting so expensive that AI companies are moving

-Victor Reklaitis