Scoop: Trump pollster gives GOP a data center survival guide
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In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on August 26 in Abilene, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
President Trump's longtime pollster is offering Republican candidates a detailed playbook for neutralizing Democratic attacks over AI data centers — down to what language they should and shouldn't use.
Why it matters: Republican strategists say GOP candidates have been all over the map in responding to the backlash to data centers.
- The goal is to put Republicans on offense after months of playing defense on the issue.
Driving the news: Pollster Tony Fabrizio warns in a two-page memo obtained by Axios that "unqualified support for building more AI data centers is a losing position."
- Fabrizio specifically advises candidates not to say, "I support building more data centers," warning: "It will be clipped and show up in ads."
- Instead, he tells Republicans to support AI infrastructure only if developers pay for their own power needs, protect consumers from higher utility bills and safeguard local water and natural resources.
Fabrizio argues that candidates must make clear those conditions are enforceable, rather than voluntary commitments from tech companies.
- "This converts the candidate from a defender of technology companies into the person imposing rules on them," Fabrizio writes in the memo, which was sent Monday.
Fabrizio offers a three-step script for candidates.
- First, "validate" voters' concerns about higher utility bills, the power grid and water use.
- Second, "draw the line" by vowing not to support projects that force families to subsidize them or allow tech companies to harm surrounding communities.
- Finally, argue that projects should move forward only if companies provide their own power, protect ratepayers and safeguard local water.
"The order matters," Fabrizio writes. "It adopts voters' concerns as the approval standard instead of asking them to set those concerns aside."
Fabrizio warns against generic support for "more data centers," leading with jobs or China, dismissing local concerns or defending individual projects before their costs and resource demands are known.
By the numbers: Fabrizio's polling shows voters are far more receptive to data center construction with conditions than unrestricted development.
- Sixty-one percent of registered voters favor allowing construction with conditions, compared with 28% who favor prohibiting data centers altogether.
- His polling also finds voters oppose additional data center construction without conditions by 65% to 24%.
The background: Fabrizio is a central player in Trump's midterm political operation, helping shape the polling and strategy guiding the GOP's campaign to retain control of Congress.
Yes, but: Trump remains an enthusiastic booster of data centers even as Republicans grapple with growing voter concerns about their local impact.
- "I'm telling you, it's all a hoax. The data centers are great, and they make people wealthy, and they make states wealthy, and it's the oil of the next 20, 25 years," Trump said Monday.
