Half of Americans now oppose a data center within three miles of their home, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll released Sunday, October 25, 2026. That is the highest opposition since POLITICO began tracking views of the sprawling technology hubs — and nearly double the 28 percent who said the same in January.
The survey, conducted October 16–19 by PF Global for POLITICO, lands with less than two weeks left before the midterms. Reporters Timothy Cama and Katherine Long write that data centers have become a major political risk for candidates who support them. Americans are also now more likely to oppose candidates who favor nearby data-center construction, a reversal from ten months ago when those candidates still drew slight support.
Virginia is not a side note in that debate. Loudoun County alone reports about 233 data center buildings totaling roughly 56.5 million square feet as of March 1, 2026 — the highest concentration anywhere in the world, per the county’s own “Data Centers: The Loudoun Story” page. Statewide, Virginia has long marketed itself as Data Center Alley. On Virginia Insider, host Uriah Kiser framed the new poll as a warning for Democrats and candidates who have backed the boom: Americans are growing tired of computer farms taking hundreds of acres in their communities, and Virginia has more of these facilities than anywhere else on the planet.
Voters’ concerns track what neighbors already argue at local hearings — water use, power demand, land use, and whether promised jobs outweigh the footprint. Pennsylvania Republican strategist Sam Chen told POLITICO the pitch can sound fine at first, then sour: once people learn about environmental impact, water usage, and the power these sites pull, it becomes a not-in-my-backyard mindset. Progressive messaging strategist McKenzie Wilson called the speed of the shift “really stunning,” saying it is rare in public opinion for voters to move so negatively on an issue so quickly.
The politics cut both ways. POLITICO reports that 47 percent of people polled said they would be more likely to support a Democrat who opposes a local data center, compared with 36 percent for a Republican in the same posture. Nearly half of Americans now identify Republicans as the party most eager to build data centers, up from 38 percent in January, while 44 percent identify Democrats as the party that would stop local development. Still, 46 percent say they do not know where their own House candidate stands — room for campaigns to define the issue before Election Day.
On the airwaves, the tone is already harsh. Of 579 ads that aired in battleground House, Senate, and gubernatorial races this cycle mentioning data centers, virtually all portrayed the hubs negatively, according to AdImpact data cited by POLITICO. Almost 80 percent of those ads were run by Democrats.
That national map lands hard in Richmond and Northern Virginia. Gov. Abigail Spanberger has opposed a blanket statewide moratorium, arguing localities should decide whether to welcome projects while the Commonwealth sets higher standards. In September 2026 she unveiled a Data Center Accountability Framework and signed Executive Order 22, citing electric bills, water, land, air, and quality of life. Loudoun supervisors have separately weighed pauses on new applications even as tax revenue from the industry remains a large share of the county budget. The tension — jobs and tax base on one side, ratepayer and neighborhood pushback on the other — is exactly why a national poll about three-mile buffers matters here.
Virginia Insider’s take is straightforward: you cannot run Virginia politics in 2026 without answering for data centers. Candidates who treat every proposal as automatic progress are swimming against a tide that has nearly doubled in less than a year. Unions, power companies, and tech developers will keep making their case. Voters who live next to substations, diesel backups, and empty-looking warehouses full of servers will keep making theirs. Midterms will test which argument wins.
What to watch next is whether campaigns in Virginia and other battlegrounds sharpen anti–data center messaging in the final stretch — and whether Democratic leaders who have backed industry growth, including Spanberger’s accountability-over-ban approach, can persuade voters that standards are enough when half the country does not want one three miles from home.
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