How to Win Voters and Influence NIMBYs

Data center opposition is more moveable than recent media coverage implies

Rainey Center polling finds data center opposition weakest among AI users and near existing sites. Voters want developers to pay their own way.

Most voters oppose a data center in their community. In our September survey, 62% do, in line with recent NBC News, Fox News and YouGov polls. That opposition runs highest among people who don’t use AI and people with no data center nearby. Electricity bills drive it. And few voters want a halt. They want developers to meet conditions.

AI use divides voters more than party

• Daily AI users support a local data center 55% to 36%. Voters who never use AI oppose one 79% to 10%.
• That 88-point gap in net support is the largest in our data. Party produces a 27-point gap.
• 17% of voters use AI daily, and 29% never do.

Opposition is weakest where data centers exist

• Where a data center already operates, voters support one in their community 49% to 42%. Where none exists, they oppose one 70% to 23%.
• 25% strongly oppose where one operates, against 51% where none exists.
• 71% say there is no data center in their community or aren’t sure. 79% know no one who has attended a meeting or signed a petition about one.

Electricity bills drive opposition

• The share who say local data centers raise their electricity bills rose from 34% in February to 48% in July. Among Democrats, it rose from 47% in May to 57% in July.
• Making data centers pay for their own electricity ranks second among voters’ AI priorities for lawmakers, behind holding AI companies liable for harms.
• Electricity for nearby homes tops the list of direct benefits that would raise support.

Voters want terms

• 16% put pausing or slowing AI development among their top three priorities for lawmakers.
• The top approach requires developers to bring their own power, sign community benefit agreements, hire locally and lose power before homes do in a grid emergency, and it lets communities reject projects. It won 64% of matchups against nine alternatives. It won 67% among Democrats, 61% among Republicans and 65% among independents.
• Pausing the largest projects until standards are set won 57%. A flat one-year statewide pause won 51%, about average.
• 71% support requiring community benefit agreements, with at least 70% in every party.