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The Republicans’ Senate campaign committee has begged AI companies to take action against the public’s hatred of data centers because supporting them has become a major drag on Republican midterm campaigns.
Axios first reported on a leaked memo sent by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) on Tuesday. In the memo, the group says that the backing of data centers has become an “anchor” on the campaign of GOP Senate candidate Jon Husted in Ohio — and that Republican campaigns in other states are going to be affected, too, if public perception doesn’t change.
“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. Until that happens, the issue will continue to dominate this race,” the memo says.
“If it is still this potent in November, elected officials everywhere will treat Ohio as their reason to work against data centers in the future. If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio,” the NRSC goes on.
The committee says that Americans are “still making up their minds” on the issue and that candidates should focus on ideas like making sure data centers pay for their own utilities to combat proposals of a moratorium increasingly embraced by some Democratic and progressive candidates.
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Data centers — which are springing up everywhere amid tech firms’ AI race — have indeed emerged as a top issue in this election cycle, showing up in candidates’ platforms in nearly every state.
Gallup polling in May found that 70 percent of Americans oppose having a data center built in their area to support AI. Politico found in July that nearly half of voters say they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate who said they would impose a moratorium on data center construction.
Grassroots campaigns against data centers have emerged in nearly every single state in the U.S., with at least 75 data center projects having been blocked or delayed in the first three months of 2026 alone. Campaigners cite concerns about data centers causing hellish noise pollution; using up massive amounts of water and electricity, raising utility rates; and fueling AI projects that support surveillance and other government harms — all while creating very few permanent jobs, acting as a leech on the local economy.
Backing the projects, as the NRSC noted, is becoming politically toxic. Progressive candidates who are running on opposing data center development like Abdul El-Sayed are exceeding expectations and overcoming major political spending. Democratic and Republican candidates who support them — often backed by corporate funding and citing competitiveness with China — are facing attacks based on their support of the projects.
The NRSC writes that these attacks are working. Brown has repeatedly highlighted Husted’s backing of data centers on the campaign trail, taking out numerous ads showcasing Husted as the “face of data centers” in the state. In turn, Brown has been trending upwards in polls, including a Fox News survey that found Brown to be up eight points to Husted, though many pollsters have rated the race as a tossup in the typically red state.
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