President Donald Trump's administration has been heralding the construction of data centers to power artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure across the country. But many red state residents are becoming increasingly angry about data centers' intrusion on their rural communities.
That's according to a Tuesday article by the Washington Post's Evan Halper entitled "The data center rebellion is here, and it's reshaping the political landscape," which reported that residents in deep-red states like Indiana, Oklahoma and elsewhere are showing up in droves to public hearings solely to speak out against proposed data center construction. The Post zeroed in on an ongoing conflict over a planned data center in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, where Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has championed the project.
"We know Trump wants data centers and Kevin Stitt wants data centers, but these things don’t affect these people," Trump supporter Brian Ingram said. "You know, this affects us."
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright admitted that the data centers are unpopular as they have been tied to higher utility costs in adjacent communities, due to their immense power requirements. And the Post noted that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has also railed against data centers due to both their electricity consumption and their draining of precious freshwater sources.
"In rural America right now, where data centers are being built, everyone’s already angry because their electricity prices have risen a lot," Wright said during a December address at the North American Gas Forum. "‘I don’t want them in my state’ is a common viewpoint."
The public pressure campaign on local officials appears to be working. The Post reported that between April and June of 2025, more data center construction projects were cancelled or delayed than in the previous two years combined. Nonpartisan research firm 10a Labs' Data Center Watch found that an estimated $98 billion in data center construction was put on hold in just one quarter last year. Mitch Jones, who is the managing director of policy and litigation at Food and Water Watch, told the Post that the data center construction boom "affects so many issues."
"It takes up farmland in rural communities. It takes up dwindling water sources in communities that need cleaner drinking water. And it is driving up electricity prices for everyone," he said. "It is drawing together people from disparate backgrounds who might not agree on other political issues. They are saying this is taking place without any forethought to communities and we must stop it."
Click here to read the Post's report in its entirety (subscription required).
