Data centers are becoming the latest flashpoint in American politics, and as the midterms approach, candidates are still trying to figure out how to broach the issue.
In both blue and red districts, the centers are facing backlash.
In Ohio, a tight race is heating up between incumbent Sen. Jon Husted and his Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, and data centers are playing an increasingly important role in the race.
This week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a stark warning to AI companies in a memo.
“Brown has made his opposition to them the centerpiece of his campaign against Husted. Brown is using it because it works,” the memo read.
“More than any other thing in this race, 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.”
Artificial intelligence companies have spent millions of dollars on congressional races and primaries to secure their future interests.
Ohio has the fifth-most data centers in the country. Brown’s campaign has made anti-data-center sentiment central to his messaging, highlighting Husted’s support of tax breaks for data center developers while he served as lieutenant governor.
Husted, meanwhile, introduced legislation last month that would require data center companies to pay for the power they use.
A recent Fox News poll has Brown at 53 percent and Husted at 45 percent.
President Donald Trump, however, has made his stance on the issue clear.
“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous,” the president said at a cryptocurrency White House event on Wednesday. “And if you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it.”
But the majority of the country does not feel the same.
A May Gallup poll revealed that “71 percent of Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their local areas. Fewer said they were against a nuclear energy plant being built in their area.
