MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The backlash against AI data centers is becoming a central issue in this year's midterm elections. Recent Gallup polling shows 7 out of 10 Americans oppose data centers getting built in their communities. Candidates from both parties are trying to take stances that match public opinion, but President Trump is taking a different approach, which puts some Republican candidates in a tough position. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram is here. Hey there, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hello.
KELLY: OK, so most Americans do not want a data center in their backyard. What's the president saying?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. Well, broadly speaking, Trump is very cozy with tech company leaders. He's always had a pro-AI stance. He wants pretty - little regulation over AI, he says, in order to favor innovation. But recently, he started to talk more about data centers specifically. And this is what he said the other week.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: 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.
SHIVARAM: And that puts Trump at odds with most Americans. Polling shows that data centers are extremely unpopular. So many local town hall meetings all over the country have seen these huge turnouts from folks protesting data centers over concerns from water usage to higher utility bills to noise pollution. So there's already a disconnect between what Trump and voters want. And then to complicate things further, yesterday, he posted on social media and said that towns that don't want data centers are, quote, "backwards and poor."
KELLY: So let's go then to the pickle that this puts Republican candidates in. How are they tackling this disconnect?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, there's concern growing among many Republicans that the president is not helping on this issue. He keeps insisting on a position over data centers that more candidates are starting to back away from. The national Senatorial Campaign Committee, which helps Republicans get elected, recently sent a memo to tech companies warning that the narrative around data centers might cost them an election in Ohio. And so candidates - specifically Republicans - are shifting. One example is in the Texas governor's race. Incumbent Greg Abbott has started saying that AI companies deserve the backlash they're getting over data centers, and he's instituted a moratorium on new development. It's a huge pivot from where Abbott was on this issue just months ago.
KELLY: What about, Deepa, trying to tackle it from the messaging perspective? I mean, President Trump himself has acknowledged, OK, maybe AI companies have a little bit of a PR problem here when it comes to data centers. Is there any effort to try to change public opinion?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, there are some new political ads dropping. They're coming from a pro-AI group called Build American AI. They get funding from some big Silicon Valley players. Their goal is to support candidates who are, you know, open to the economic benefits of data centers amid all of this public concern and backlash. But I talk to Brendan Steinhauser. He's a Republican, and he leads The Alliance for Secure AI, which is a group that supports more AI regulation. And he thinks that these ads won't do much because voters already have really strong opinions.
BRENDAN STEINHAUSER: They want protections on their kids. They want protections on workers, and they want protections on their own security - cybersecurity and even national security.
SHIVARAM: He thinks public opinion won't change unless politicians actually do something on AI and answer those concerns.
KELLY: Well, and again, this is going to be a big issue in the midterms, but the debate is not going away just after the voting ends.
SHIVARAM: No. I don't think the conversation is going to end anytime soon. People I talk to - voters, organizers, policy experts - pretty much all say the same thing, which is that the backlash isn't just about the physical building, right? It's also just about the apprehension towards the technology writ large. I'm curious to how much of this plays out in the conversation for the 2028 presidential primaries, right? Thinking of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, for example. He's a Democrat who's already shifted his stance on the issue to be more bullish against data centers.
KELLY: 2028...
SHIVARAM: (Laughter).
KELLY: ...God help us. NPR's Deepa Shivaram, thank you.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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