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Voter anger over soaring power prices is spreading across party lines across the country, as energy-hungry data centers increase the strain on power grids and ratepayers’ wallets.
Analysts are now warning that growing opposition to big warehouses driving the artificial intelligence revolution is becoming a major factor in the 2026 midterm elections.
As Americans face high utility bills, data centers that provide the computing power and storage needed to power AI models like ChatGPT are emerging as the “villains,” Jefferies analysts said in a report this week.
All political candidates running this election year will be forced to “take a position, whether for or against data centers/AI.”
“This issue is not just an issue at the state and local level, it is also on the federal agenda as the election narrative forces this issue across all sectors,” they said. “This is not only evident in state-level elections, especially those with gubernatorial turnover (term limits and re-election), but also nationally, where many still seem to underestimate the Trump administration’s focus on these issues.”
Trump: Tech companies need to ‘pay for themselves’ for data centers
President Donald Trump has argued that data centers are essential to the U.S. economy and the AI race with China, but they face increasing pressure to cut costs for Americans struggling with his economic response.
President Trump on Monday, January 12, addressed voters’ concerns about data centers and said his administration is working on agreements with technology companies to keep Americans out of their data centers.
President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he “never wants Americans to have to pay higher electricity bills because of data centers.” “We are the ‘hottest’ country in the world and number one in AI. Data centers are key to that boom and keep Americans free and safe, but the big tech companies that build them will have to ‘pay their own way.'”
Electricity prices have soared in recent years as power companies replace aging infrastructure and upgrade their power grids. Data centers only increase energy demand.
A study last year from Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University estimated that data centers and crypto mining could increase average electricity bills by 8% by 2030, and more than 25% in major data center markets such as Northern Virginia.
Companies fear a backlash due to soaring electricity prices
Electricity prices are rising rapidly in areas with a high concentration of data centers.
“In rural America, where data centers are being built right now, everyone is already angry because electricity prices have gone up so much,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said recently at the North American Gas Forum.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s gubernatorial election in November on a promise to lower utility rates as voters blamed steep interest rate hikes on the state’s data center boom.
Northern Virginia, also known as the “Data Center Capital of the World” or “Data Center Alley,” accounts for a large share of the world’s Internet traffic.
“I think it’s important that the burden of data centers is not on ratepayers. In fact, it’s important that ratepayers pay their fair share in their own way,” Spanberger said during his campaign.
Technology companies are concerned that a backlash against data centers threatens the expansion of AI.
Community backlash spiked between April and June last year. In just three months, 20 projects worth $98 billion have been delayed or blocked, more than in all previous quarters since 2023, according to Data Center Watch, which tracks the backlash.
Microsoft pledged this week to cover costs associated with its data centers.
“We believe it is unfair and politically unrealistic for our industry to ask Americans to pay more for AI, especially when tech companies are so profitable,” Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of Microsoft, said in a blog post. “Instead, we believe that the long-term success of AI infrastructure requires technology companies to pay their own costs for the electricity they generate.”
Last year, Microsoft withdrew plans to build a data center in Wisconsin after community backlash.
