WASHINGTON — Looking to neutralize an increasingly toxic issue on the campaign trail, Republican candidates in battleground races across the country are racing to show they're willing to stand up to data centers.
But the leader of their party keeps making it harder.
President Donald Trump has stood firmly behind controversial data centers while much of the country revolts against the rapid expansion of the massive warehouses that power artificial intelligence. Trump has called data centers "big, strong, bold and money machines," broadly claimed "red states" want the facilities and urged governors to "convince your community how great these things" are ‒ all while aligning himself politically with the tech companies pushing the sprawling centers.
"You can't fight it, you have to go with it," Trump said in July about data centers. "You're going to have something where, if you don't have it, everybody else wants it."
Data centers have quickly become one of the defining issues of the 2026 midterm election cycle. Once hailed by politicians in both parties as economic engines and job-producing boons, both Democrats and Republicans have turned sharply against the facilities in their messaging as the public backlash intensifies over their enormous size, staggering energy consumption, noise and lack of direct benefits to the surrounding neighborhoods.
Democrats were primarily the ones to pound the issue first, but Republicans have started to pivot as well.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ‒ who last year hailed Texas as the "epicenter of AI development" ‒ this month paused approvals of new data centers until regulator agencies can conduct audits of the facilities. Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, followed up with a "Texas First Data Center Plan" that endorses the governor's moratorium.
Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany has gone on the attack against Democrat David Crowley over data centers, calling his opponent "data center David Crowley" for his answer in a written questionnaire stating, "I do not believe Wisconsin should automatically roll back all data center tax incentives." Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, has countered by pointing to Tiffany's voting record on federal legislation that sought to make it easier to build projects for AI.
And in Ohio, Sen. Jon Husted, who is up for reelection, in July introduced legislation called the Ratepayer Protection Act to "protect Americans from footing the bill for new data centers." Years earlier, he declared Ohio is "becoming the tech capital of the Midwest" following a 2019 Google announcement in the state. His shift came amid an aggressive television ad blitz from Democrat Sherrod Brown calling Husted "the face of data centers in Ohio" for helping recruit tech companies.
Trump remains data-center booster amid bipartisan opposition
The rapid expansion of data centers, which house networks and services for digital information and services, is proving to be the rare issue that cuts through party lines. A Gallup poll conducted in March found 71% of Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their areas ‒ including 75% of Democratic voters, 63% of Republican voters and 74% of independents.
Yet Trump has remained a booster of data centers despite widespread opposition, arguing the facilities are critical for the United States to compete with China in AI innovation. Trump called Abbott's freeze on data centers in Texas "a mistake."
"We're building the biggest plants anywhere in the world," Trump said in Aug. 19 remarks at the White House as he stood next to top executives of tech companies. "If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous."
Trump added that data centers could "use a little public relations help" but said "many of them are designed in a very beautiful way."
Republicans aren't the only ones who have dramatically changed their tune on data centers. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat facing reelection, this month signed an executive order creating new restrictions for future data centers including reversing a policy that expedited permitting for the facilities.
"I'm using the full weight of my executive authority to block the objectionable, unwarranted projects and put the nation’s strictest set of protections in place," Shapiro said.
As recently as April, Shapiro said Pennsylvania can play a "leading role in winning the battle for AI supremacy." Months earlier, Shapiro touted "the largest private sector investment in the history of Pennsylvania" after Amazon announced plans to build multiple data centers in the state totaling $20 billion.
Stacy Garrity, Shapiro's Republican challenger, has attacked Shapiro over his past recruitment of data centers to Pennsylvania. "Last summer, Josh Shapiro was the biggest data center cheerleader in the nation,” Garrity, the state's treasurer, said in response to Shapiro's order, accusing the governor of trying to "gaslight the people of Pennsylvania."
'Sleeper issue' of the midterms, Republican Senate arm warns
But in more races, it's Republicans on their heels over data centers. And while Trump defends the facilities, Republican strategists have started to grow concerned about the damage the issue could inflict on their candidates as they work to maintain control of the House and Senate.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP campaign arm, in a memo last week raised alarm about Brown's use of data centers to attack Husted in the Ohio race, and acknowledged the strategy is working.
"More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck," the Aug. 18 memo, first reported by Axios, reads. "If he loses and datacenters get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one."
The NRSC called data centers "a sleeper issue" in the election cycle, noting that television ads that mention them tend to be effective because it presents new information on a highly relevant subject. "If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio," the memo says, advising Republican Senate candidates to focus on emphasizing local control of data centers and for tech companies to pay for their own utilities.
Trump's support for data centers has been influenced by his close dies with the tech industry. David Sacks, a tech investor and the White House's former special adviser on AI, co-wrote an "AI Action Plan" in 2025 that called for "streamlined permitting for data centers." Trump hosted 33 major AI tech leaders for a White House dinner last September that included Sam Altman of OpenAI, Mark Zuckberberg of Meta, Tim Cook of Apple and Jensen Huang of Nvidia.
Trump introduced a Ratepayer Protection Pledge this year that seeks written commitments from stakeholders ‒ including elected official and data center developers ‒ to protect households from absorbing utility costs tied to data centers.
Twenty-three governors have signed the pledge, well as leaders of Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon. Trump has said he wants data centers to build their own dedicated power stations, which is part of the pledge; however, the industry-friendly document is not binding and does not enforce any actions.
'I would want to have the data centers,' Trump says
Democrats see data centers as an issue where they believe Republicans are vulnerable, particularly given Trump's ties to the tech industry.
Scranton, Pennsylvania Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat challenging Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan in a critical swing House race, in a television ad compares "Big tech" to coal companies that have taken advantage of the area before. The ad highlights Bresnahan's purchase of stock in a major supplier for data centers while he was also pushing data centers to come to the district.
"Big companies have come before, take what they wanted and left us with their mess to clean up. Now it's data centers," Cognetti says in the self-narrated ad. "Here's the deal. Big Tech needs to pay their own way."
Amid the growing backlash to data centers, Bresnahan in June introduced the Local Control Protection Act, which he said protects local municipalities from being sued by tech companies if they deny proposals for data centers. “We should never let billion-dollar corporations supersede the voices of those who live in the community,” Bresnahan said.
Trump, asked on Aug. 21 about Republicans' changing positions on data centers, said the debate is "a pretty simple one" from his standpoint, pointing to "jobs and lots of money and lower taxes" from the centers.
The president also said he's fine if not all Republicans support data centers ‒ though Trump made clear where he stands.
"I want them to do what they want. Some people feel differently. I really want them. If a Republican is against the data center, that's OK with me," Trump said. "But 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."
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's support for data centers clashes with Republican midterm pivot
