Voters Concerned about Tariffs, Impact of Data Centers
The September Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media Iowa survey finds Republican Ashley Hinson leading Democrat Josh Turek in the U.S. Senate election, 50% to 45%. Support for Hinson increased two points since August, while Turek’s support held at 45%. In the race for Governor, Democrat Rob Sand leads Republican Zach Lahn 49% to 46%, while 6% are undecided.
“About six percent of voters in the Iowa poll are splitting their ticket to support both Republican Ashley Hinson for Senate and Democrat Rob Sand for Governor,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “Independent voters break for Sand over Lahn by a 12-point margin, 51% to 39%, while Turek leads Hinson by two among this group, 46% to 44%.”
President Trump holds a 44% job approval rating among Iowa voters, while 52% disapprove of the job he is doing in office.
Last month, the Emerson Iowa poll found a majority (62%) of Iowa voters oppose data centers being built near or in their community, while 24% support it. This month, the poll asked voters if they think the building of data centers will have a positive or negative impact on several factors in Iowa.
A majority of voters think data centers will negatively impact the environment (60%) and cost of living (52%) in Iowa, while 46% think they will negatively impact quality of life. Voters are most split on data centers’ impact on jobs in Iowa: 44% think they will have a negative impact on jobs, and 41% a positive impact.
A majority of voters (58%) oppose the US imposing tariffs on Canadian products, while 42% support them. Opinion on imposing tariffs on Canadian products varied by party; a majority of Democrats (92%) and independents (60%) oppose the tariffs, while 70% of Republicans support them.
A majority of Iowans, 71%, are concerned about Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on U.S. imports, while 29% are not concerned about them.
Voters oppose their community using installed automated cameras, often called Flock cameras, that police can use to photograph vehicles and record their license plates, 61% to 26%.
Nearly all (96%) voters think it is important for Iowa state officials to address Iowans’ exposure to environmental contaminants, such as PFAS, nitrates, radon and pesticides.
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling Iowa survey was conducted August 31-September 1, 2026. The sample of likely voters, n=750, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3.6 percent. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, party registration, and region based on U.S. Census parameters and voter file data.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting registered voters from a voter file provided by Aristotle using MMS text-to-web, with additional panel interviews provided by PureSpectrum. The survey was hosted on QuestionPro. All respondents were recruited using customized links that prevent responses from anyone outside of the poll’s sample frame. Panel responses were matched to the Aristotle voter file using respondents’ full name and ZIP code. The survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with exact wording and order, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found below. The survey was sponsored by Nexstar Media.
