<p>A new poll on data centers shows that less than 10% of the country views the facilities as a top-three political issue.</p>
<p>Just 7% of the 1,004 registered voters surveyed listed data centers as one of the three most important current political issues, while 12% listed artificial intelligence, according to a new survey released by the Rainey Center for Public Policy. The survey was conducted between September 10 and 14, following a warning from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon about the existential threat of AI, which sparked a nationwide conversation about AI regulation.</p>
<p>Over half of survey respondents, 57%, listed “grocery prices, gas and household utilities” as the most salient issue, followed by 30% listing jobs and the economy, and 20% listing affordable housing. AI came in as the 13th-most salient issue, directly following energy costs and transgender issues in schools and sports. Data centers being built in communities ranked as the 15th-most salient issue, behind cybersecurity.</p>
<p>The polling results come after a week of federal and state lawmakers debating how to proceed with additional AI regulations in response to calls from frontier AI lab leaders for industry guardrails. Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk, the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI, respectively, each called for a national slowdown on frontier model development.</p>
<p>The conversations have intensified the debate over data centers in the context of the midterm elections, as more 2026 candidates are putting out messaging on the topic to appeal to local voters.</p>
<p>However, national leaders remain divided on the issue, with politicians such as President Donald Trump urging people to disregard calls for new guardrails due to the United States’s AI competition with China, as Congress considers several options for regulating the industry.</p>
<p>In a question regarding the top three priorities for lawmakers on AI and data centers, 48% of survey respondents answered “holding AI companies liable for harms,” while 38% answered that “data centers pay their own electricity.” Just 16% of respondents answered “pausing or slowing AI development.” One-fourth of respondents answered “staying ahead of China in AI.”</p>