'The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer': How Data Centers Are Building an Unlikely Political Coalition

Video: The New York Times on Instagram — "How A.I. Data Centers Are Building a New Political Coalition" (May 1, 2026). Reported by Sabrina Tavernise.

Saline Township, Michigan: Where Left and Right Meet at the Fence Line

The New York Times sent national writer-at-large Sabrina Tavernise to Saline Township, Michigan, to document something increasingly rare in American political life: genuine, grassroots, bipartisan unity. What she found was a community — liberal professors and conservative farmers, environmentalists and libertarians — standing together against one of the largest AI data center construction projects on earth.

The project is called "The Barn." At 2.2 million square feet, it is part of OpenAI's Stargate infrastructure push, developed by Related Companies. It will consume 1.4 gigawatts of electricity — the equivalent of the annual energy use of roughly one million households, according to University of Michigan professor Ben Green. It broke ground on June 1, 2026, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attending the ceremony, as construction proceeded over the strenuous objections of the community it will most directly affect.

'The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer'

Opposition to data centers is crossing every political line the tech industry assumed would protect it. As University of Michigan School of Information professor Ben Green explained to Harvard's Gazette:

"It's not a simple left or right issue. Liberals and people on the left are concerned for environmental reasons and distrust in AI companies, but many conservatives are upset about data centers too... being critical of data centers is a big winning issue for candidates."

A recent Gallup poll found 7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers in their area. That's not a partisan number. That is a country.

The Township That Was Sued Into Compliance

The Saline Township story is a case study in how the industry operates when democracy gets in the way. The local township government initially resisted The Barn project. In response, the developers sued the township. Local leaders, unable to afford a protracted legal battle against some of the wealthiest companies in the world, caved. Construction was approved not because the community wanted it — but because the community couldn't afford to keep saying no.

The community's response was swift. Residents have since filed recall petitions against three township board members who voted to capitulate.

The False Promise of Jobs

The standard industry pitch — jobs, tax revenue, economic development — is collapsing under scrutiny. Once The Barn is operational, it is expected to employ approximately 450 permanent workers, many of whom are unlikely to be local hires. Meanwhile, Michigan law has handed the facility an exemption from the state's 6% sales tax under Public Acts 181 and 207. The net economic benefit to the community that bears the cost of this facility is, at best, highly uncertain.

As Green put it bluntly: "It's a significant false promise of these data centers." And over the last year, Virginia and Georgia alone have collectively given up more than $1 billion in tax breaks to the data center industry — money that will not go to schools, infrastructure, or healthcare.

What 1.4 Gigawatts Looks Like on a Grid

The energy math is staggering at scale. Nationwide, estimates project that data centers will consume 10–15% of total U.S. electricity demand within a couple of years. Every hyperscale facility like The Barn is a direct constraint on the country's ability to retire fossil fuel plants and transition to clean energy. The people of Saline Township are not opposing convenience — they are opposing a facility whose energy appetite will reverberate across the Michigan grid and beyond.

Watch It. Share It. Show Up.

The NYT reel is worth watching and sharing widely. It puts human faces on an issue that tech companies prefer to keep abstract: the neighbors, farmers, and families who live in the shadow of these buildings and have to fight trillion-dollar corporations in court just to be heard. The resistance in Saline Township is not a fringe position. It is the majority position in America. The question is whether that majority can convert its numbers into political power before the next 50 Barns break ground.

Sources: The New York Times — "How A.I. Data Centers Are Building a New Political Coalition" (May 1, 2026); Harvard Gazette — Ben Green interview (April 2026); People's World — Saline Township groundbreaking (June 4, 2026); Gallup: 7 in 10 Americans Oppose Local Data Centers.