(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . GOP begs Big Tech to defend data centers [1] ['Emily Singer'] Date: 2026-08-19 Panicked that data centers will take down GOP candidates in must-win states, national Republicans are essentially begging Big Tech to defend the facilities that consume massive amounts of energy and natural resources to power their artificial intelligence models. In a memo obtained by Axios, the National Republican Senatorial Committee admitted that Ohio GOP Sen. Jon Husted is “in a dead heat” with former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown because of Brown’s relentless ad campaign tying Husted to data centers. The GOP group said if Brown wins with this message, it will create even more political backlash to data centers that could hurt big tech companies in the future. “Ohio is one of the leaders in building these AI factories. Brown has made his opposition to them the centerpiece of his campaign against Husted. Brown is using it because it works,” the memo states. “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.” Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, shown in May. AP The memo doesn’t explicitly say that Republicans want Big Tech to spend money to run ads combatting the anti-data center message. But that is clearly the implication. “Campaigns or party committees can not fix the toxic brand of an entire segment of the economy. The companies that need these projects built have to fix how Ohioans see them: who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one,” the memo says. “If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio.” There are a few takeaways from the NRSC’s alarmist memo. First, they admit that Ohio’s Senate race is indeed a toss-up—a troubling sign for Republicans as President Donald Trump won the state by 11 percentage points in 2024. If they lose Ohio, their path to maintaining a Senate majority is in deep trouble. Second, they admit that data centers are a potent issue, which gives Democratic candidates in other states a roadmap to making the issue work for them this fall. Brown, for example, has spent millions on ads tying Husted to data centers, which, according to polling, Americans believe will raise their electricity prices and more broadly hurt their communities. “He’s been called the face of data centers in Ohio. Why? Because Jon Husted spent years aggressively recruiting data centers to the state,” one of Brown’s ads states. #OHPol: "He's been called the face of data centers in Ohio. Why? Because Jon Husted spent years aggressively recruiting data centers to the state" Sherrod Brown is up with a new #OHSen ad. Since 2018, Brown's campaign has spent $116.7M across his Senate campaigns. pic.twitter.com/6zFm3HU6ts — AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) July 7, 2026 Brown isn’t the only Democrat making an anti-data-center message a big part of their campaign. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro has changed his mind about data centers, issuing an executive order on Tuesday that would require data centers to have community support and prove that they won’t be a drag on local resources before they can get approval to be built. “We’ve seen too many developers who are trying to bulldoze our community with these speculative deals that are never going to come into reality, and they’re wreaking havoc on our neighbors,” Shapiro told CBS News on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, Politico reported that Republicans in Texas—yes, Texas—are worried that the explosion of data centers in the state could even cause GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to lose. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa released an ad this week tying Abbott to data centers, which cleverly uses imagery of an AI chatbot explaining how data centers are hurting Texans and that Abbott has supported them. “Rural people feel like they are the ones seeing the brunt of this, and they don’t like it,” Jim Henson, executive director of the Texas Politics Project, told Politico of how the data center issue is hurting the GOP in the Lone Star State. “These issues are starting to bond together a lot of the people against data centers.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/19/800086535/news/nrsc-data-centers-memo-ohio-husted-brown/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/