Republicans fear the opposition to artificial intelligence data centers could cost them Ohio’s hotly-contested Senate race, according to a recent memo.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) expressed its concerns in its Tuesday “Ohio Data Center Risk” private memo, first obtained and shared by Axios, that suggested that Democratic campaign rhetoric against data centers may hurt the GOP’s chances of holding Ohio’s Senate seat during the midterms. An NRSC spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the memo to the Daily Caller News Foundation and mentioned it was sent to AI companies.
Negative views of data centers pose a problem for Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who previously helped recruit data center projects and is currently running to keep his seat.
The NRSC memo warned that the issue may rapidly spread nationwide.
“If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio,”it stated.
As Husted and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown compete for Ohio’s Senate seat in a Nov. 3 special election, the Democrat has made opposition to data centers one of his central issues as the movement opposing such AI centers becomes increasingly popular across the U.S.
Husted’s campaign argues that his belief in regulating data centers is a stance Ohioans can get behind.
“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,” Amy Natoce, a Husted campaign spokesperson told the DCNF.
The campaign further claimed Brown is a hypocrite and supports data centers himself.
“Sherrod Brown’s hypocrisy is glaring. After praising data center expansion and vowing ‘to ensure that our region’s burgeoning logistics hub continues to grow,’ Brown has done an election-year about-face,” Natoce added. “He had 32 years in Washington to protect ratepayers, but instead sat on his hands — and now he’s lying to Ohioans about his own record.”
Natoce added that the data center issue should be tackled at the local level.
Brown expressed his support for an Ohio data center in May 2015.
“This new data center is great news for New Albany and central Ohio,” Brown said, according to a May 29 press release.
Brown’s campaign called Husted “the face of data centers in Ohio,” in a July ad.
A spokesperson for Brown did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
OpenAI and Nvidia announced a large data center project in Pike County, Ohio, on Monday.
Located at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, the six-year project anticipates 35,000 construction jobs will be created, OpenAI claimed. Meanwhile, the AI company said it would contribute $40 million for a “community grant fund supporting priorities identified by local residents.”
(DCNF)