The data center rebellion is here, and it’s reshaping the political landscape

“We are all asking: Where are the people we elected who promised to protect us from these big corporations trying to steamroll us? The people who are supposed to be standing up and protecting us are standing down and caving.”

Anger over the perceived trampling of communities by Silicon Valley has entered the national political conversation and could affect voters of all political persuasions in this year’s midterm elections.
Many of the residents fighting the project in Sand Springs voted for President Donald Trump three times and also backed Gov. J. Kevin Stitt (R), who implores tech firms to build in his state.
“We know Trump wants data centers and Kevin Stitt wants data centers, but these things don’t affect these people,” said Brian Ingram, a Trump voter living in the shadow of the planned project. “You know, this affects us.”
Ingram was standing before a homemade sign he planted on his front lawn that said, “Jesus Was Born on Ag Land.”
The grassroots blowback comes from deep red states as much as from left-wing groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America, which have helped draw hundreds of residents to hearings in Arizona, Indiana and Maryland.
Even Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned data center developers that they are losing control of the narrative. “In rural America right now, where data centers are being built, everyone’s already angry because their electricity prices have risen a lot,” he told energy executives assembled in Washington for the North American Gas Forum last month. “‘I don’t want them in my state’ is a common viewpoint.”

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