Big Tech Skeletons <\/h2>\n
Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) was appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance\u2019s vacant Senate seat after Vance became vice president. He is currently running in the November 2026 special election to serve out the remainder of Vance\u2019s term and is fending off an aggressive challenge from longtime Ohio Democrat and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).<\/p>\n
While Husted is a household name in Ohio thanks to his 25 year political career as a Republican in the state, there is one element of his legacy as lieutenant governor in Ohio \u2014 the position he held until Republican Gov. Mike DeWine hand-picked him for the Senate \u2014 that is not just coming back to bite him, but making Brown\u2019s job incredibly easy: Husted\u2019s past fervent support for new data center construction in the state.<\/p>\n
As lieutenant governor, Husted was a stanch supporter of Ohio\u2019s tax breaks for data center development, which were passed by Ohio lawmakers a decade ago to spur economic growth in the state. Ohio is currently home to at least 240 data centers<\/a> \u2014 with one currently being constructed in Pike County that\u2019s on track to be\u00a0the world\u2019s largest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ohio is one of several states that previously passed sales tax exemptions for the equipment needed to run data centers in order to help fuel the artificial intelligence boom. But that was before public outrage at the rampant development of new facilities for training AI models boiled over, among Americans of all political stripes, to become a dominating issue of the 2026 midterms. Husted was a major champion of new data center development in Ohio. He led ribbon-cutting ceremonies and issued press releases celebrating the construction of the new facilities in the state for years as a top official. Here\u2019s one from February 2019<\/a>, celebrating news that Google would construct a new $600 million data center in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cGoogle investing in Ohio to open a new data center is great news for our state,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n This is an unpaid cross promotion from our friends at Popular Information:<\/strong> Are you curious about what politicians are funded by major corporations? Would you like to know how money impacts important policy decisions? Would you like to peek behind the curtain of DC\u2019s influence game? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we recommend <\/em>signing up for Popular Information<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, <\/em><\/strong>an independent newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Uproar at how the data center boom is impacting water supply, air quality and affordable electricity in communities across the nation has only reached a fever pitch in the last year or so. Politicians, primarily Republicans, who previously championed both data center construction and unregulated AI advancement are now scrambling to change course as these issues become politically toxic.<\/p>\n I wrote about this last week<\/a>, but Ohio is one of several states that once encouraged data center construction with tax breaks for Big Tech companies whose politicians are now looking for ways to pause or repeal those tax incentives in response to voter demands that elected officials do something \u2014 anything \u2014 to keep the burgeoning American tech oligarchy in check:<\/p>\n After substantial public pushback, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine back in May placed a pause on new applications for sales-tax exemptions, and some state lawmakers are pushing for the sales-tax exemption to be repealed. Several other states are considering similar actions to end or pause these ongoing tax breaks for tech companies, which \u201cseem to have more money than God,\u201d as one Ohio lawmaker, state Rep.\u00a0Tristan Rader (D-OH), put it to WSJ.<\/p>\n View Article Husted is one of many Republicans trying to shape-shift on an issue they staunchly supported even months ago. While President Trump does all he can to make it impossible for members of the Republican Party to hold any position of nuance<\/a> (You\u2019re either 100% swallowing what Big Tech is shoving down our throats or you\u2019re \u201cbackwards and poor\u201d), Republican leadership in Congress has tried to create a middle-of-the-road policy position for vulnerable members and candidates this fall. It goes like this: Republicans are all for data center construction as an economic driver for rural and urban communities, but tech companies need to be footing the bill for rising electric costs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a messaging framework that Husted himself has adopted in recent weeks as he looks for ways to adjust to the public\u2019s scorching outrage and his opponent\u2019s relatively easy task of skewering him with related attack ads. In August, he told the local Ohio Statehouse News Bureau<\/a>\u00a0that he is in agreement with DeWine and Ohio state legislators\u2019 push to, at the very least, place a pause on sales and tax breaks for tech companies constructing the new facilities in Ohio. He argued that big tech has done \u201ca terrible job of talking about the value and virtue of\u201d their technology.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve earned that backlash,\u201d Husted said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been as forthcoming about the benefits that will come in terms of local jobs and construction worker jobs and reduced property taxes, and they haven\u2019t offered things like paying the energy bills for local communities, for the power plants they build.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Congress, Husted is using the last remaining days of the legislative session before the upper chamber goes on recess to try to convince his colleagues to take up a bill that he\u2019s co-sponsoring that would force the tech companies behind data centers to cover the cost of utilities for their buildouts. The \u201cRatepayer Protection Act\u201d would require state utility regulators to make sure that data centers and other big energy consumers cover the cost of any updates to the grid that need to take place to ensure their operations, among other things.<\/p>\nRepublican Shapeshifting 2026<\/h2>\n
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