Only 14% of Americans Want a Data Center in Their Town. Now 125 Cities Are Protesting.

Fourteen percent of Americans want a data center in their community. On Saturday, 125 cities acted on that gap.

The coordinated day, organized by HumansFirst on July 18, 2026, marked the first nationwide push against data center expansion. The group's co-founder, a former leader of the modern-day Tea Party, has compared the moment to the 2009 anti-tax wave and directed it at the AI infrastructure buildout.

Imperial County, California approved then reversed a large data center project after community pushback. A developer's separate suit for Colorado River water was dismissed by Imperial County Superior Court on July 16. In Oklahoma, lawmakers are debating whether siting deals can stay secret under NDA; the state argues they are not trade secrets.

A US News variant of the wire counts 142 protests across 42 states, a later cut-off on the same Saturday rather than a contradiction. The 14% is a national baseline, not a local outcome, so individual siting fights still turn on jobs, tax revenue, and water rights. The open question is whether Saturday's turnout translates into a real siting-decision loss. Oklahoma's NDA bill is still in committee; the Colorado River suit is dead for now.