Data centers have become a defining issue in Ohio’s Senate race, which Cook Political Report rates a toss-up. Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown agree tech firms should pay for the electricity they use but clash over existing projects and state tax incentives.
OpenAI joined a multibillion-dollar Pike County project with S.B. Energy, NVIDIA and the U.S. Department of Energy. It could bring 35,000 jobs to Ohio through 2032 and $120 million in community investment, while drawing 8 gigawatts of electricity—roughly the output of eight large power plants.
Husted’s July bill would require state utility regulators to consider making large power users cover the costs of plants, transmission lines and substations built to serve them, and provide financial assurances if projects are delayed, downsized or abandoned. The House passed it 417-3, but it stalled in the Senate after Sen. Martin Heinrich objected to unanimous consent. Brown has aired at least eight ads calling for an end to data-center tax breaks; Husted has aired none. Ohio data centers received $2.5 billion in state and local tax breaks from 2017 to 2024, according to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
