Scoop: Trump pollster gives GOP a data center survival guide

Trump pollster Fabrizio gives Republican candidates advice on how to talk about AI data centers

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7 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Scoop: Trump pollster gives GOP a data center survival guide

* Alex Isenstadt

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!In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on August 26 in Abilene, Texas.

*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.

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