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I want to give listeners a heads-up about some exciting news: Nate Silver, Clare Malone, and I are starting a weekly podcast with Crooked Media called Still Counting! We’re getting the gang back together every Wednesday to talk politics and numbers starting September 9, and you can subscribe now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s already a trailer in the feed to give you a taste of what’s to come.
To be clear, GD POLITICS isn’t going anywhere. I’ve loved making this podcast for you all over the past year and a half, and I’ll continue chatting with friends, experts, authors, and others every Monday and Thursday. Now you can also hear from Clare, Nate, and me on Wednesdays!
We’ve been talking for a while on this podcast about how AI is liable to disrupt American politics, whether through joblessness or a bursting stock market bubble. We’re not ruling any of those out, but the most immediate disruption appears to be data centers.
According to a recent Fox News poll, American voters oppose building a data center in their area to support artificial intelligence technology by 40 percentage points.
Politicians are taking note. Both Democrats and Republicans who championed new data centers in their states just last year have since taken sharp turns on the issue.
Last week, the Senate GOP campaign arm released a memo warning that the issue could sink Ohio Senator Jon Husted, writing, “If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one.” The memo goes on to say, “This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”
Today, Mary Radcliffe, head of research at FiftyPlusOne, and Nathaniel Rakich, managing editor at Votebeat, help me unpack that conclusion. We also dig into questions about whether the primary vote in Alaska is predictive of the midterm results this fall. Plus, after a fake pollster caught our attention last week, we’re digging deeper into the Wild West of startup pollsters and how they shape public perceptions of political races.
