Meet the Gen Zers fighting back against AI data centers—70% of young adults don’t want one in their town

Elijah Lee has spent years listening to Virginia lawmakers talk about data centers. At 18, he’s done listening.

Lee is high school chapters coordinator for Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z–led political advocacy group. He lives in the state often called the data center capital of the world, since Virginia has more data centers than anywhere else on the planet. Now he’s helping young people across the country push back against them.

“It’s difficult to break the data center issue into one piece, but for young people, we know what data centers mean long-term,” Lee said.

He has plenty of company. A University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center survey conducted this summer found that 70% of adults under 30 oppose new data centers in their area. That compares with 61% of all adults and 57% of those 65 and older. The researchers called it a reversal of the usual pattern, in which younger Americans are quicker to embrace new technology. In Pennsylvania, the gap is wider still: 83% of likely voters ages 18 to 29 opposed data center development, according to a poll reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fortune has reported that Gen Z has become an organizing force behind the national backlash, and that opposition has spread well beyond the small share of Americans who actually live near a data center.

From the classroom to the council chamber

Voters of Tomorrow chapters are meeting with local officials, hosting voter registration drives on campuses and holding information sessions at high schools. When they ask young people what concerns them, Lee said, data centers come up again and again.

In Spartanburg, S.C., members of the group’s high school chapter spoke up about a proposed data center. Amid heavy public turnout, Spartanburg County Council delayed a final vote on a one-year moratorium in August. It then........

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