Democrats hold a national polling advantage on data centers, a new NBC News survey has found, as former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown makes Republican Senator Jon Husted’s record central to Ohio’s Senate race. The NBC News poll found that voters trusted Democrats over Republicans to handle data centers by 32 percent to 20 percent, although 44 percent chose neither party or said both would perform equally. And nearly two-thirds of registered voters nationally said they would be less likely to support a candidate who backed a data center in their community, the September survey found, giving Democrats an opening in Ohio’s deadlocked Senate race.
In a series of ads, Brown is casting Husted as the "face of data centers," arguing that companies have received large tax breaks while Ohio residents face higher electricity bills. But Husted has called the attack hypocritical and said his Ratepayer Protection Act would make data centers cover the power infrastructure required to serve them. "We know that our electric rates in this state are some of the highest in the country, and Jon Husted’s been the front guy on all of these data centers," Brown told News 5 Cleveland.
Husted has challenged that position by pointing to Brown’s earlier record. "Sherrod Brown is such a hypocrite," he said. "He used to want to take credit for data centers coming to Ohio," citing a news release issued during Brown’s time in the Senate.
The two candidates are effectively tied in a contest that could help decide control of the Senate. Ohio backed Democrats in 2008 and 2012 before moving sharply toward Republicans, culminating in an 11-point victory for President Donald Trump in 2024. Ohio residents living near proposed sites could see concerns about electricity bills, water, farmland, and local control shape their votes.
"I don’t want them taking the farmland," one resident, Len Gordon, told NBC outside a planning commission meeting, warning that a proposed facility would "destroy this town," while Deborah Zimmerer said concerns about power bills, water, land and property values would "most definitely" affect the November vote. Newsweek reached out to Brown and Husted’s campaigns via email for comment on Friday morning. Data centers have become a dispute over who benefits from America’s artificial-intelligence expansion and who pays for it.
Brown is linking their local costs to Husted, who is promoting federal legislation intended to protect electricity customers. Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Act is now on the Senate calendar, opening a route to consideration without guaranteeing a vote. A nationwide NBC News poll of 500 registered voters, conducted from September 11 to 15, found 64 percent would be less likely to support a candidate who favored building data centers in their community.
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