Whose Backyard Is It? Data Centers and the Local Vote

Virginia’s data center boom is usually described as an economic triumph, but a growing number of families are asking who is paying for it. The state’s rural and suburban communities are being reshaped by massive server campuses, new high-voltage transmission lines, and fast-tracked zoning decisions, often with little meaningful input from the people who live next door to these structures and decisions. Conservatives have always held that government closest to the people governs best. This November, that principle is being tested in Virginia’s backyards.

The first concern is the cost to ordinary ratepayers. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and serving that demand means new generation, new substations, and new transmission lines. When utilities spread those upgrade costs across their entire customer base, the retiree on a fixed income and the young family watching their budget end up subsidizing the infrastructure of some of the wealthiest corporations on earth. The numbers are worrying. A state legislative audit commission projected in December 2024 that data center growth could push Dominion residential bills up by $444 per year by 2040. Voters have noticed. In one January 2026 poll of 800 Virginians, 73% blamed data centers for rising electricity costs, and 29% blamed them a lot. A conservative approach to energy policy rests on a simple principle: the party that causes a cost should bear it. 

Public opinion has also shifted sharply. A Washington Post-Schar School poll found that support for having data centers built nearby fell from 69% in 2023 to 35% in 2026, and 57% of registered voters said data centers are hurting residential utility bills, against only 14% who said they help. The state treasury is exposed as well. Virginia’s annual financial report shows the Commonwealth gave up $1.6 billion in 2025 through sales and use tax exemptions for data centers. Taxpayers are being asked to subsidize the industry twice, once at the register and again on the power bill, and they are saying no. The Summer 2026 VCU Commonwealth Poll found that 72% of registered voters oppose a sales tax exemption for data centers, including 49% who strongly oppose it. 

The second concern is local accountability. In places like Loudoun County, which has become the heart of the industry, supervisors have faced criticism for approving aggressive zoning changes and infrastructure expansions while residents bore the noise, the land-use changes, and the rising costs. Advocacy groups such as the Virginia Freedom PAC point to projections that data centers will supply 45% of Loudoun’s local tax revenue in FY27, with 177 new facilities in development. Supporters of the industry say that revenue keeps residential property taxes lower, and that is a fair point. But a local government this dependent on a single industry has a built-in incentive to say yes, and that makes it harder to hear its own citizens. Conservatives should insist on transparency, fiscal discipline, and clear answers about who benefits, who pays, and who decided.

Protecting local rights means protecting the ability of communities to decide what gets built in their own neighborhoods. Recent debates in Loudoun over a moratorium and over ending grandfather protections for pending applications show that residents and their elected officials are pushing back. Voters outside the industry’s orbit agree that the burden belongs on the builders. About 81% of registered voters support requiring data centers to offset the demands they place on Virginia’s electric infrastructure. In a separate survey, 52% of voters opposed constructing data centers near where people live. Property owners deserve predictable rules, honest public hearings, and leaders who weigh the long-term costs of rezoning against short-term revenue. 

The public is also telling Richmond that it expects action. A Global Strategy Group poll of likely voters found that 92% believe state lawmakers are failing to properly manage data center growth, and respondents held state leaders more responsible than utilities or tech companies. That is a rare thing in politics: a mandate that cuts across party lines. The same poll found that 71% would be much more likely to vote for a candidate who makes data centers pay their fair share for electricity and infrastructure costs. A later survey of likely voters found a similar result, with 67% saying they would be much more likely to back a legislator who requires data centers to cover the full cost of the electricity and grid upgrades they need. Incumbents who have waved these projects through should expect to be asked why.

All of this comes back to the ballot box, because accountability is only real when voters use it. Local boards, state legislators, and the officials who oversee utilities answer to the electorate. Early voting is underway in Virginia, and every eligible citizen should check their registration, make a plan, and show up. Freedom means knowing what a decision costs you, and prosperity means knowing who voted for it. Virginians who want their communities, their wallets, and their local voice protected should vote this November as if their backyard depends on it, because it does.