As angst over the environmental and energy impacts of Artificial Intelligence data centers grows in Ohio, the issue has emerged as a significant liability for Republicans, potentially jeopardizing Senator Jon Husted's reelection campaign in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate contests. A memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee highlights increasing public hostility toward these massive facilities, warning that a Husted defeat could send a cautionary message to politicians and the technology industry nationwide.
The Ohio Senate race, a key battleground for control of the chamber, currently shows incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown leading Republican challenger Jon Husted by eight points, according to a recent Fox poll. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the Senate, making competitive races like Ohio's particularly crucial.
Campaign Trail Focus on Data Centers
Brown has made the data center issue a central theme of his campaign, reportedly investing millions in advertising that casts Husted as the "face of data centers in Ohio." This strategy capitalizes on Husted's past role as lieutenant governor, where he was a vocal proponent of attracting technology companies to the state. Under his leadership, Ohio has become a significant hub for data centers, ranking fifth nationally with over 200 facilities. Major companies like Google, Meta, Vantage, QTS, Nvidia, and OpenAI have established or announced major projects in the state.
In 2019, Husted attended the groundbreaking for Google's $600 million data center in New Albany, promoting the project as a catalyst for Columbus to become a “tech hub of the Midwest.” The Google project, like others, benefited from significant state incentives, including a 15-year sales-tax exemption estimated at $43.5 million and a local property-tax abatement. Husted defended these incentives at the time, arguing that the economic benefits outweighed the tax breaks and that higher taxes could have driven investment elsewhere.
This history has provided Brown with an opening to criticize the state's approach, arguing that Ohio's political establishment offered generous incentives to large tech companies while ordinary citizens bear the cost of the industry's substantial energy demands and infrastructure needs. Brown has attacked the data center tax breaks as disproportionately benefiting a few corporations at the expense of Ohio families facing higher electricity costs.
Shifting Stances and Legislative Responses
Husted's campaign argues that the decision to allow data center development should remain local and points to the economic benefits, including tax revenue, property tax relief, and job creation. His spokesperson, Amy Natoce, criticized Brown for adopting the issue only in an election year after decades in Congress without addressing it.
Husted himself has shifted his focus, advocating for legislation to ensure that large electricity consumers, such as data centers, cover the costs of the additional generation, transmission, and grid infrastructure they require. In July, he introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act, aimed at establishing such standards.
Interestingly, Brown also has a past record of supporting data center development. In 2015, as a Senator, he praised the construction of a third data center in central Ohio, calling an Amazon project "great news for New Albany and central Ohio" and a sign of regional business confidence. However, he is now campaigning against the uncontrolled expansion of the same industry.
The Issue Spreads to Other States
The controversy surrounding data centers and their associated costs is not confined to Ohio. In a move that could influence other states, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed an executive order on Tuesday imposing new regulations on data center development. This order mandates that developers seeking state permitting advantages must meet standards for energy costs, environmental impact, water usage, and transparency, and secure local approval before receiving state authorization. Data centers were also removed from Pennsylvania's fast-track permitting program, signaling a shift in how states are approaching the industry's growth.
The growing cost of Ohio's data center tax exemption, which reached nearly $1.6 billion in 2025—far exceeding earlier projections—has fueled public debate about whether the incentives justify the economic benefits. The competition among states to attract the substantial investments associated with AI and cloud computing is now evolving into a contest over how to allocate the industry's considerable costs among their residents. 
