AI and data centers came last among midterm voter issues, but still mattered to 56%

AI made it onto the ballot this year, just not at the top of it. In exit polls from NBC News and SSRS for the 2026 US midterms, 56% of voters said AI and data centers weighed decisively or importantly on how they voted, The Decoder reports.

That's a majority, and it was still last of the five issues surveyed. Government corruption led at 90%, cost of living followed at 89%, then the war in Iran at 74% and immigration enforcement at 73%. Public interest in AI has jumped in recent months, The Decoder notes, but it still trailed everything else by a wide margin.

How to read it

Both ways, honestly. More than half of voters calling AI and data centers a factor in a congressional race is not nothing. The fight over local construction, electricity and schools has clearly reached voters.

But "important" isn't "deciding." When everything from corruption to rent ranks ahead of it, AI is a concern people carry into the booth, not the reason they're there. Politicians on either side looking for a mandate on AI policy won't find a clear one here.

Details are thin in this report, which gives only the top-line ranking. Watch for fuller breakdowns of the same poll, especially how voters feel about a data center in their own neighborhood. That question is where AI's local politics actually get decided.

Scoreboard update: Draw. AI matters to most voters, and is still the issue they care about least.

Stay undead.