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The energy debate in Washington is loud and partisan. Despite the anti-clean energy rhetoric coming from this administration, conservative voters are telling a much different story. They support expanding solar because it lowers …
Electricity demand is rising at a historic rate, and so are utility bills. The solution? Build more solar and storage — the cheapest and fastest ways to supply booming demand. Farmers and landowners are …
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The Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA) is leading the transformation to a clean energy economy. SEIA works with its 1,200 member companies and other strategic partners to fight for policies that create jobs in every community and shape fair market rules that promote competition and the growth of reliable, low-cost solar power.
Founded in 1974, SEIA is the national trade association for the solar and solar + storage industries, building a comprehensive vision for the Solar+ Decade through research, education and advocacy.
WASHINGTON D.C. — In case you missed it, today, Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), testified in front of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works …
The energy debate in Washington is loud and partisan. Despite the anti-clean energy rhetoric coming from this administration, conservative voters are telling a much different story. They support expanding solar because it lowers costs, strengthens American manufacturing, and delivers energy security.
A recent poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, chief pollster for President Trump, found that a clear majority of Republicans support expanding solar power in the United States. In the survey, 68% of GOP voters agreed that “we need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs,” while 70% said they support utility-scale solar deployment when projects use American-made materials. Another poll from Kellyanne Conway’s KA Consulting showed that three-quarters of Trump voters (75%) in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas believe that solar energy should be used in the U.S. to strengthen and increase our energy supply.
Conservative voters are drawing a clear distinction between rhetoric and practical solutions that lower costs. As the Fabrizio memo notes, the idea that solar is inherently at odds with right-leaning voters is not borne out by the data.
So, why are GOP voters standing up for solar? Because they are seeing it deliver results.
Red states are leading the nation in new solar deployment because competitive markets are choosing the lowest-cost and fastest-to-build resources.
In 2025, 73% of all new U.S. solar capacity was installed in states that voted for President Trump in 2024. States like Texas, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Arkansas are routinely setting deployment records.
Just this month, Texas’ grid was running a record 30,000 megawatts of solar, at times providing 60% of total demand and keeping prices stable. Indiana installed more solar in 2025 than all six New England states combined. Conservative states are allowing competitive markets to choose the lowest-cost and fastest-to-deploy resources, and the market is choosing solar.
That strategy is a boon for economic investment. Companies looking to build data centers or advanced manufacturing facilities want reliable and competitively priced electricity. Arkansas Senator John Boozman credited his state’s “reliable, affordable, and all-of-the above energy supply, including solar” for attracting a multi-billion-dollar data center to Little Rock.
Energy policy is about national strength, and conservative voters are eager to reduce dependence on foreign energy and counter China’s electro-state ambitions. American-made solar increasingly fits within that priority.
In the last two years, solar manufacturing in the United States has increased dramatically. Solar panel, cell, racking, and power electronics manufacturers have opened or expanded their operations in states across the nation, including Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina. SEIA’s Supply Chain Dashboard shows just how widespread this manufacturing acceleration has become.

Owning the solar supply chain is critical for the United States to win the race for leadership in artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. These industries require enormous amounts of new electricity that can be delivered quickly and affordably.
As tech leaders like Elon Musk, Chamath Palihapitiya, and conservative commentator Katie Miller have recently pointed out, China’s rapid deployment of energy generation is threatening to put the race for AI and manufacturing out of reach. Data centers cannot wait a decade for new generation; they require scalable resources now. Solar, paired with storage, is one of the fastest technologies to deploy at scale.
Perhaps most importantly, solar aligns with a core conservative priority: lowering costs for families and businesses. Voters are paying closer attention to their utility bills, and opposing affordable solar power is becoming untenable.
As energy demand rises and price pressures mount, restricting affordable resources like solar carries political risks. Recent elections in Virginia, Georgia, and New Jersey offer insight into how voters are thinking about energy affordability. In these races, candidates who supported expanding solar and storage presented a forward-looking approach to meeting demand and managing costs, and they found strong support at the ballot box.
Many prominent conservatives are urging the administration to reverse course and gain back the all-of-the-above high ground.
Neil Chatterjee, appointed to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during the Trump administration, has described solar as an opportunity to expand domestic energy production while maintaining fiscal discipline. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick has emphasized that lowering energy costs requires utilizing every available source, including renewables, in the name of energy independence. Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has similarly highlighted how solar contributes to his state’s energy independence and economic growth.
These voices are not abandoning conservative principles. They are applying them to current market realities.
Taken together, the polling data, deployment trends, manufacturing growth, and emerging conservative advocacy point to a clear conclusion: support for solar among conservative voters is rising because it aligns with free markets, American competitiveness, domestic manufacturing, and lower prices.
For many conservative voters, the question is no longer whether solar belongs in America’s energy mix. It’s how quickly the country can build more of it.
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Twiggy Mendenhall is the Senior Policy Associate of Solar & Energy Storage at CleanCapital, a renewable energy investment firm who develops, constructs, owns and operates, and invests in solar…
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