When many rural Americans flock to the polls on November 3rd, a crucial issue will be looming over the voting booths: AI data centers.
According to new polling by YouGov and the Economist, data centers are emerging as a kind of kryptonite for Republican candidates banking on the rural, conservative vote.
New survey data shows that between May and October, voters living within a mile of a data center facility are swinging hard to the Democratic ticket — with the share of those planning to vote blue rising from 54 percent to 61 percent.
While that swing becomes diluted as you zoom out, it seems large enough to impact the national share of voters planning to back Democrats, which rose from 53 to 55 percent across the US over the same time period.
Though the issue of data center regulation isn’t neatly split along partisan lines, the ruling Republican bloc is increasingly viewed as the party of big tech — a perception most clearly underlined by president Donald Trump’s pro-data center rhetoric and embrace of tech billionaires.
Yet whether the Democratic party is ready to take advantage of this golden opportunity remains to be seen. Earlier this year, it was revealed that top Democratic party strategists had advised state and federal candidates running in the November midterms to avoid going too hard on AI and data centers, for fear of upsetting the powerful tech industry behind them.
Though it certainly isn’t a “democratic” strategy by any definition of the word, it does make sense from a purely financial point of view. The tech lobby — currently led by ginormous AI companies — has emerged as the largest source of campaign contributions in US history, lavishing tens of millions of dollars on both for Democrats and Republicans alike.
As anti-center activist Nick Owens put it in an interview with Ohio Capital Journal, “frankly, both parties are complicit.”
Against that backdrop, the midterms will test a crucial question: are disaffected rural communities actually embracing Democrats and their politics, or simply spiting Republicans within the confines of the two-party system? Time will tell.
More on US elections: Particularly Weak-Minded Americans Are Asking ChatGPT Which Candidate to Vote For, Which Sounds a Bit Like AI Is Just Voting Now Via Meat Proxies
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