Former Sen. Sherrod Brown is facing pushback from his longtime union allies, who say his attacks on Ohio’s data center industry have put them in an uncomfortable position after the Democrat built his three-decade political career on the back of organized labor.
Brown has aired eight ads attacking data centers this cycle, according to ad-tracking service AdImpact. All of the ads are attacks on his opponent Sen. Jon Husted, whom he’s repeatedly labeled the industry’s “point man” in Ohio. Husted has aired no ads on the subject.
Brown reiterated the message at a rally in Fremont last week, telling supporters that data center operators “come in, they swallow up the land, they gulp up the water, people don’t have any say in where these data centers are going. And then, electric bills have gone up.”
The problem, according to several union officials, is that data centers have become a boon for Ohio’s building trades in recent years, which makes Brown’s rhetoric a hard sell inside his own coalition. Dorsey Hager, who leads the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, an organization that has endorsed Brown, said members contact him every time a new anti-data center ad airs, wanting to know whether Brown’s campaign checked with labor first.
“Was I tickled to death when I saw some of his commercials? Absolutely not,” Hager said, adding that the ads are “unhelpful whether it’s him or anybody else that we’ve supported that’s taking a [negative] stance on data centers.”
Husted has personally pointed to the disconnect between Brown’s messaging and his union support, noting, “He was celebrating data centers coming to Ohio when he was a U.S. senator, and he did nothing, nothing, to try to address this issue when he was a U.S. senator for the last 32 years.”
Questions about Brown’s own financial ties to the data center industry have also raised eyebrows. Records show Brown has taken in tens of thousands of dollars from Google’s corporate PAC and from lobbyists whose firms handle data center permitting for the company, money that kept flowing even as he ran ads attacking a Google-owned facility in Lancaster.
Husted has sought out a middle ground on data center expansions by pursuing legislation requiring data centers to pay for their own power use. The bill passed the House 417-3, but has been blocked by Senate Democrats.
“Sherrod Brown and his friends would rather play politics and stick Ohio families with higher electric bills than pass a commonsense solution. It’s despicable,” said Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce.
Data centers are at the forefront of many voters’ minds heading into this election cycle. Ohio has 20 of the nation’s 38 data-center-related ballot measures this November, more than any other state. Voters in Sunbury, Granville and Pataskala will consider charter amendments banning data centers above 25 megawatts of demand load, while Grove City’s Issue 28 would require a public vote before large developments proceed. Ashville voters will decide whether to uphold or repeal an already-approved project from developer Edgeconnex.
