After taking AI money, Republicans get cold feet on data centers

Data centers have hit peak levels of unpopularity, and Republicans have started to feel the metaphoric heat akin to the literal heat complaints that local residents have raised since the AI boom took off. 

According to a National Republican Senatorial Committee memo that Axios reports to have seen, the committee warned AI companies that the facilities that power their billion-dollar startups could punch a hole in Sen. Jon Husted’s case to return to office in November. 

The memo contained a stark warning about the domino that could start to fall if Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is polling ahead of the Republican candidate, holds that lead into the elections. Even the committee describes its own polls as a “dead heat” between the candidates.

Republicans are wary of data centers 

In an NRSC letter headlined “Ohio Data Center Risk,” the Republican committee warned AI giants that politicians could soon see support for data centers as a sure-fire way to lose public support and elections. 

The reaction is not an overreaction as Brown has spent millions making Husted “the face of data centers in Ohio” and fingering him as the local accomplice for ballooning electricity bills tied to the nearly 250 data centers in Ohio. Residential rates have climbed 175% since 2005, outpacing inflation and the national average, per U.S. Energy Information Administration data. 

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