How tech became the villain of the US midterms

The short version

The tech industry's role in the US midterms has turned negative, with rising public disdain targeting datacenters and AI leaders.

Key takeaways

• Public backlash against tech is evident in midterm campaigns.
• Datacenters are increasingly viewed as environmental threats.
• Leading tech figures face growing untrustworthiness among voters.
• High spending by tech billionaires is influencing election outcomes.

Overall sentiment

The article reflects widespread public discontent towards the tech industry and its influence in politics.

AI classification of the article’s tone. Evidence used is based on cited polls, spending data, and campaign activities discussed in the article.

Sources cited by the article

• Pew Research poll from last month ↗
• according to a Gallup poll ↗
• as polls show ↗
• multiple polls ↗
• as untrustworthy ↗
• Musk has sunk $366m ↗
• US midterm elections 2026 ↗
• 150 midterm election campaign commercials ↗
• backed out of a planned $25m ↗
• spending on Flock cameras in August ↗
• automatically scan license plates ↗
• policy tracking firm MultiState ↗
• raising more than $340m and spending more than $1m a day ↗
• show ↗
• US politics ↗
• Datacenters – US ↗
• AI (artificial intelligence) ↗

These references were linked or listed by the publisher, then selected for relevance. They are distinct from our original-source citation.