MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Data centers - giant windowless buildings filled with servers. They are the backbone of the AI boom. They are also deeply unpopular. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, political candidates are tapping into the backlash.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Two months after OpenAI broke ground on a massive data center campus in Salem Township, Michigan, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was there. He was using the controversial project as a backdrop for his insurgent campaign.
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ABDUL EL-SAYED: I stand with local- and state-elected officials saying that we cannot approve any more of these until we have federal-level guardrails.
KEITH: While data centers aren't the centerpiece of El-Sayed's pitch to voters, they do tie into key themes of his campaign - populist economics and getting money out of politics.
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EL-SAYED: And unless and until we protect local communities from the power of corrupting money and politics, we're going to continue to see projects like this get pushed on to local communities despite themselves.
KEITH: A Gallup poll from earlier this year found 7 in 10 Americans oppose the construction of an AI data center in their area, so perhaps it's not a surprise candidates are picking up on the political opportunity.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: They're popping up across America - massive data centers burning through electricity and land. Now, Washington wants to fast-track one here without asking us first.
KEITH: That's an ad from Matthew DenOtter, a Republican mounting a primary challenge in Michigan's 1st Congressional District. In Michigan's 7th, Democrat William Lawrence says he didn't set out to campaign against data centers.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE: It wasn't something that I expected to be part of the campaign last August because data centers weren't on our radar. But there have been four data centers proposed in the district since I declared my candidacy.
KEITH: Voters kept talking about it, and now it's part of his antiestablishment campaign. In Wisconsin, calling for a moratorium on data center construction has helped Francesca Hong build a broad coalition as she runs for governor.
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FRANCESCA HONG: It's time to press control alt delete to put a stop to this AI data center crisis, a full moratorium until we have the new regulations we need to protect our energy costs, our economy, our environment.
KEITH: At a recent Hong campaign event, supporter Peggy McCrumb didn't hesitate when asked why she backs the candidate.
PEGGY MCCRUMB: I don't think anyone wants data centers, and she's the only one who stands up against it. So she's actually listening to what people want.
KEITH: Hong is a Democratic socialist. But this issue cuts through the usual partisan divides, says Amanda Litman, the founder of Run For Something, which works with Democrats running for state and local office.
AMANDA LITMAN: We're hearing it from urban, from rural, from suburban. We're hearing it in red states, blue states, purple states. It's all kinds of communities, which I think is really speaking to how visceral people feel this is coming for them.
KEITH: Because, she says, these data centers are the most tangible representation of the threat people perceive from AI, whether it's higher energy prices or making jobs obsolete.
Tamara Keith, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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