Ohio GOP fears data center backlash could cost Senate seat

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, defended President Donald Trump's energy and economic agenda on Friday at a southwestern Ohio steel mill with Vice President JD Vance. His appearance came as Republicans warn that backlash over data center construction could put his Senate seat in jeopardy.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo this week that data centers have become a "sleeper issue" this election cycle. Americans increasingly worry about the impact on utility costs, the NRSC wrote.

Ohio hosts several large data center projects, including a proposed 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County that could cost more than $500 billion.

Higher electricity costs are the result of Democratic policies, Husted argued at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in Middletown, Ohio.

"You want to have lower electricity prices – I want to tell you why they're rising. Because Congress and, under the Obama administration, under the Biden administration, they closed 23 power plants in the state of Ohio, representing half the electricity we use on a daily basis," Husted said. "Radical climate policies did that."

Husted and Vance were joined by other GOP candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor who is locked in a close race with Democrat Amy Acton.

Recent polling shows Husted narrowly trailing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in his bid for reelection. Husted's seat is seen as crucial for Republicans if they want to retain their majority in the Senate. The GOP is widely favored to keep the chamber, though Trump's falling approval ratings, rising inflation, the ongoing Iran war and growing data center anxieties are causing concerns within the party.

"If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio," the NRSC wrote in the Tuesday memo, which was obtained by CNBC and first reported by Axios.

Husted also touted the Trump administration's investment in Ohio manufacturing, including a $500 million Department of Energy grant to Cleveland-Cliffs. The grant was initially awarded by the Biden administration to finance a hydrogen-powered furnace at the Middletown facility. It now will be used for other upgrades, including to its blast furnace and artificial intelligence technologies.

Cleveland-Cliffs said it will match the DOE's funding, for a total $1 billion investment in the facility. The project would employ more than 1,500 workers during construction.

"We can bring back manufacturing to this great country, in places like Middletown and across our great state," Husted said. "Investments like this, a billion-dollar investment right here? Because it's job security, it's economic security, it's national security."