Data centers may cost Republicans an Ohio Senate seat.
Ohio Is the Data Center Epicenter Problem
The New York Times reports Republicans Are Struggling Everywhere. This State Is the Epicenter.
In 2022, the governor, Mike DeWine, had beaten his Democratic opponent by 25 points. A year ago, the Trump-allied biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor, held nearly a double-digit lead over his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.
Ohio’s high-tech industry was a big factor. A bipartisan enthusiasm spurred by President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, it nonetheless played to the strengths of Republican incumbents. Intel was building a huge chip plant near Columbus. Mr. Ramaswamy was promising to turn the Ohio River Valley into the next Silicon Valley. “People talk about the Rust Belt,” he said in March of last year. “I don’t want to talk about the Rust Belt. I want to lead us to the platinum belt — the sectors of the future, from semiconductors to nuclear energy to even A.I.”
But times have changed. This month, a YouGov poll for Bowling Green State University found Ms. Acton leading Mr. Ramaswamy by three points. The incumbent Republican senator Jon Husted has fared similarly. Mr. Husted appeared likely at the start of the year to keep his seat. But since June, polls have shown him trailing the former senator Sherrod Brown, who was soundly defeated by the Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024.
A lot has happened to sour the public on Mr. Trump’s party, including the war with Iran and rising prices, but much of the discontent involves high-tech industries (like cryptocurrencies) and their needs (like H-1B visas for tech workers). Above all, Republicans are paying a political cost for the buildout of data centers for artificial intelligence.
Last month, Axios published a leaked memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that expressed alarm about the devastating effectiveness of video spots Mr. Brown had begun airing. These tied Mr. Husted to the arrival of data centers in Ohio. “More than any other thing in this race,” the memo said, “data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck. If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one.”
It’s not just Ohio. Mr. Trump has been dangerously dim on the subject of data centers. “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers,” he wrote on Truth Social, “is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.” He will probably hurt his party on Election Day, five weeks from now.
Thousands of data centers have been built or are under construction in the United States. With 166 in operation, according to the Pew Research Center, Ohio has more than any state besides Virginia, Texas and California. Voters appear to think that’s enough. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has declared a moratorium on new construction. Other states are mulling outright bans.
Last year, Ohio passed a bill that promised to fast-track data centers. In the New Albany International Business Park outside Columbus, there are already 40 data centers serving Amazon Data Services, Google, Meta and Microsoft, with 28 more planned. Last month Nvidia and partners announced an estimated $500 billion building project that will include a facility in Pike County, two hours east of Cincinnati, envisioned as one of the largest data-center complexes in the world.
All of this has costs. These vast installations are wrecking the landscape in unspoiled parts of Ohio, as they have done over the past two decades in Northern Virginia. And this is happening in a national real-estate market transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led millions of Americans to move to more tranquil, nonurban surroundings. Ohio’s peak electricity demand is projected to rise by 56 percent over the next two decades.
Cheery projections made by Ohio politicians have not panned out. Tax exemptions intended to lure tech firms wound up costing $1.4 billion more than anticipated in 2025. Above all, the jobs have not come. Data centers are basically rows of computers sitting on racks — like a supersize version of that mysterious closet full of tangled wires and blinking lights at your workplace. Once construction is finished, no one but a couple of tech guys ever has any reason to go in there. Last year, The Wall Street Journal found that a large data center in Abilene, Texas, would employ about 100 people — a fraction of the jobs created by a cheese-packaging plant nearby. And cheese packaging doesn’t threaten to send residents’ utility bills through the roof.
Ramaswamy’s Solution, Free Money
Ohio Republicans are trying to mitigate the political fallout of data centers while protecting their continued construction. In August, Mr. Ramaswamy called for free electricity for people living near data centers.
NIMBY Data Centers
Data centers are like garbage dumps. Everyone wants them, just somewhere else.
Ramaswamy promotes free electricity, but only for those who live near data centers, whatever that means.
Trump wants to give $5,000 in free money to all adults.
And Vice President J.D. Vance wants to give free money to stay-at-home moms who stay at home instead of working because they can afford to stay home.
Meanwhile, the war in Iran and Tariffs are raising taxes on everyone.
The party that claims to be for tax cuts, raised taxes with tariffs, the burden falling the heaviest on small businesses and the poor. The war in Iran is a tax on everyone.
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Article posted with permission from Mish Shedlock
