How Will Data Centers Affect Ohio’s Elections?

It’s a critical election year, and candidates running for Senate and governor in Ohio are becoming increasingly aware that the issue of data centers could play a key role in the outcome of the election.

On Wednesday, Axios reported on a private memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to AI companies—it was titled “Ohio Data Center Risk.” The memo, dated Aug. 18, begins by saying the race between Republican Sen. Jon Husted and Democrat challenger Sherrod Brown is a “dead heat.” But it goes on to say: “The new ingredient (and the new problem) is data centers.”

The Buckeye State is ranked sixth in data centers, with more than 200 facilities in operation and potentially 80 new ones on the way by 2030. The rapid expansion of the high-tech factories has caused many local residents to worry about their impact on land, energy, water, and other vital resources.

“Brown has made his opposition to them the centerpiece of his campaign against Husted. Brown is using it because it works,” the NRSC states in the memo, adding that such messaging “has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”

Indeed, the Brown campaign has featured Husted and AI in recent TV ads, as the NRSC memo notes. Cleveland.com reporting from March referred to Husted as “the face of data centers.”

The NRSC memo proposes a list of action items, with a note for the companies involved as well. “Campaigns or party committees cannot fix the toxic brand of an entire segment of the economy. The companies that need these projects built have to fix how Ohioans see them: who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one. Until that happens, the issue will continue to dominate this race.”

While the memo is meant to sound the alarm on what’s at stake for the data center industry, it offers an important insight to politicians who want to truly represent the will of the people, both this year and for years to come.

“By overwhelming margins, the American people prefer a Republican candidate who wants to only let data centers be built in communities that approve them by a local vote of the people, and that pay for their own power, water, and other utilities, versus a Democrat candidate who wants to stop data center construction altogether, which will cause America to lose the AI race to China,” it states.

Senate Race

Those two approaches to data centers are in play in Ohio’s top races. Many Ohioans have called for moratoriums on all data center development, while others want ongoing growth, but with local control and commonsense regulations.

“Sen. Husted introduced legislation requiring data center companies to pay for the power they use and return excess electricity to the grid—a commonsense solution that supports America’s growing technology infrastructure while protecting reliable, affordable energy for Ohio families,” Husted campaign spokeswoman Amy Natoce told the Daily Signal.

She emphasized that data centers should remain “a local decision,” and added a jab at Husted’s opponent: “Sherrod Brown had three decades in Congress to lead on this issue. Instead, he did nothing and is suddenly pretending to care in the middle of an election year.”

Both the campaign and the Senate Leadership Fund have highlighted Brown’s support for data centers in 2015, when the tax break costs were at a lower level.

The Sherrod Brown campaign also offered to comment on the issue.

“Jon Husted led the charge to bring hundreds of data centers to Ohio and blamed families for skyrocketing utility rates that he caused,” Brown campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer told the Daily Signal. “Now, Husted is so worried about his toxic record that he is begging his special interest buddies and corporate friends to come and bail out his failing campaign.”

Brown’s spokesperson added: “Ohioans—not Jon Husted and his billionaire friends—should get to decide if data centers are built in their community.”

In late May, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a pause on tax exemptions for new data centers. In addition, the Republican governor signed President Donald Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledge,” in which elected officials pledge to put no burden on existing customers and no higher costs on families or ratepayers, and data centers are urged to pay their own utilities.

Governor’s Race

DeWine is term-limited, however. The race to replace him is between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton. Cook Political Report rates it a “toss-up.”

Earlier this month, in a pinned post on X, Ramaswamy released a pledge on data centers.

Ramaswamy’s post adds, “While I had no part in these past projects, I am committed to ensuring our policies catch up to current realities. Despite my opponents’ claims, I’m not ‘pro-data center.’ I’m pro-Ohio, and I have a plan to fix the problem.”

His plan is that if a data center is built in a community, they will no longer have to pay for that home’s electricity, they will have lower property taxes, and “the data center will be required to abide by all air and water quality standards without exception.”

Ramaswamy emphasized that such conditions must be met in order for data centers to be built. He also pledged to issue an executive order to halt approval of any new data center projects in Ohio until such data center legislation takes effect.

His opponent in the race, Acton, the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, likewise lists data centers as a priority on her campaign website.

Her plan is to enact “a conditional moratorium on data centers to ensure they cover one hundred percent of their utility costs, exclusively build with union labor, operate with full transparency, support the needs of local communities, live by Ohio’s environmental standards, and bring jobs to former industrial areas that have been left behind.”

She also wants tax incentives for developers to be reined in, and wants new factories to be built in brownfields or where jobs have already been lost.

Future Impact

Data centers are heating up as a pressing issue. Nvidia just announced a $1.5 billion investment for an OpenAI data center in Pike County. “OpenAI will be the customer. SB Energy will build, own and operate the data center under a 20-year lease to OpenAI,” the company stated Monday in a news release.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, spoke specifically to Pike County and benefits for the area.

“We’re proud to build it in Pike County, a place that is once again at the heart of American industry and leading the future. We want the people who live here to feel the benefits too, through good jobs, more opportunity for local businesses, and investment in the community for years to come,” he said in the statement.

With development continuing forward in Ohio, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s memo offers a clear warning to business.

“If it is still this potent in November, elected officials everywhere will treat Ohio as their reason to work against data centers in the future.” It adds, “If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio.”