Midwest voters rejected AI's local footprint and want guardrails on its use, and that was the case in every state surveyed. That’s according to data released the day after the midterm elections by the nonprofit National Opinion Research Center, or NORC, at the University of Chicago.
Among 16,787 likely voters in six states, 59% oppose a data center in their area with 17% in favor, while 66% favor more government regulation of AI while 14% are opposed.
The figures come from NORC's Civic Health & Elections Project, a project announced in April as a nonpartisan, 50-state study of more than 85,000 respondents. The data was fielded in the week prior to Tuesday's elections with questions on topics including economic mobility, health care, immigration, public safety, trust and AI. We’ve focused on any questions that relate to technology and entrepreneurship, with the 19,674 people from across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin providing a Midwest slice large enough to compare states.
The drivers appear to be cost, not technology. While 81% of those surveyed worry that data centers will raise utility prices, the economy was the top priority overall.
State differences were matters of degree, but not direction. Minnesota and Wisconsin are the most skeptical, Indiana and Ohio the least. Michigan stood apart: the most intense data-center opposition paired with the softest appetite for regulation.
What Midwest voters care about most on AI
The AI issues that hit the household budget rank highest, while questions about AI's broader promise barely register. Ranked by breadth and intensity of feeling among all adults (N=19,674):
Utility costs draw the most intense reaction, and a local data center is the only AI proposal that the majority opposes. Personal fear of AI is not necessarily the driver of these responses: responses are split almost evenly on whether AI will be a help or hindrance.
Utility prices make AI data centers a budgeting issue
When asked to name the most important issue for the country to address over the next five years, 35% chose the economic wellbeing of Americans, with affordable healthcare, protecting of personal rights and access to healthy food and clean water all ahead of concerns over AI and tech leadership.
Data centers are where AI impacts household utility bills in most respondents' view. 81% of adults are concerned that data centers will raise electricity and water prices, and 60% are extremely or very concerned. In election terms, those concerns played out with 59% of likely voters opposing a data center in their area. Strong opponents (40%) outnumber all supporters (17%) more than two to one.
There is broad support for AI guardrails in the Midwest. 66% of likely voters favored more government regulation of AI, 40% strongly, with only 14% opposed. Limits on AI in public schools drew similar backing: 58% of all respondents but 66–70% of likely voters across all states. Roughly one in five voters stays neutral on each.
Personal impact of AI is to be alert, but not alarmed. 27% expect AI to hurt them over the next decade and 25% expect it to help. The largest group (30%) expects little difference, and 17% are unsure. The resistance which has been bubbling through this campaign appears to be about community costs, not necessarily personal dread.
But, AI is not the information channel of choice, yet. Only 9% said they got their political news from AI chatbots, vs 40% from social media. Messages about AI policy are still reaching voters through traditional and social channels, not yet AI tools en masse.
Likely voters harsher on AI data centers and regulation
The people likely to vote hold firmer views on AI than the respondents as a whole, and those views run in the same skeptical direction. Nonvoters mostly sit more towards the center.
Voters appear to be 8–10 points more strident in their views than the general population. Nonvoters also leaned slightly more on AI chatbots for political news (11% vs. 9% for all respondents).
AI data center opposition and regulation, state by state
Essentially, every state opposed local data centers and backed AI guardrails; the gaps between states however ran between 6 and 12 points. Minnesota and Wisconsin are the most skeptical, Indiana and Ohio the least, with Michigan an outlier on regulation.
Minnesota: voters most skeptical on AI & data centers
Minnesota leads the region on both guardrails: +59 on AI regulation (70% favor, 44% strongly) and +59 on school limits. Only 10% oppose school limits, the lowest anywhere. Its 61% opposition to a local data center is the region's highest. The story is consistent caution about AI in communities and classrooms. (N=2,610)
Wisconsin voters: the skeptical twin on AI & data centers
Wisconsin tracks Minnesota within a point or two on every measure. 60% opposed a local data center (net −44), 70% favor more regulation (44% strongly), and 70% favor school limits, the region's highest share. (N=2,880)
Michigan voters: hostile to build-outs, less so on regulation
Michigan had the most intense data-center opposition in the region: 42% strongly oppose, net −43. Yet it is the least enthusiastic about government regulation, at 62% favor (net +47), with 21% neutral. School limits (+53) also tie for lowest. Local cost and site arguments seemed to be a bigger issue here than calls for new rules. (N=3,697)
Illinois voters: the middle of everything AI & data center
Illinois sat close to the regional average on nearly every measure relating to AI & data centers: −40 on data centers (58% oppose), +51 on regulation, +56 on school limits. It is warmer to classroom limits (69% favor, 43% strongly) than it is to broad regulation. (N=3,285)
Ohio voters: less hostile to AI & data centers, but still opposed
Ohio's data-center opposition is the second softest at 56% (net −37), and its 24% neutral share is the largest of any state. Regulation support (+52) matches the region exactly. Support for school limits is the least intense, with 40% strongly in favor. (N=3,312)
Indiana voters: more open to AI & data centers
Indiana was least opposed to local data centers: 21% favor, the region's highest, and only 37% strongly oppose (net −35). Even so, a majority (56%) opposes. On guardrails it sits mid-pack at +53 on regulation and +54 on school limits. (N=1,003)
Source: NORC Civic Health & Elections Project AI survey database, six Midwest states (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI), data current as of November 4, 2026.
