Politics
A GOP memo warns that backlash over data centers threatens Sen. Jon Husted's Ohio Senate race against Sherrod Brown, cautioning that if he loses with data centers taking blame, other politicians will avoid supporting new projects. The memo also urges the tech industry to take steps to improve public perception of data centers. Husted has pushed back, arguing at a Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant event that rising electricity prices stem from 23 power plants closed under Obama and Biden administration policies, not from data centers.
The Washington Post frames the memo primarily as pressure on the tech industry itself, emphasizing that the memo 'urges the tech industry to take action to improve the image' of data centers, casting AI companies as the ones who need to respond rather than centering Husted's political defense.
Axios (breaking the memo story) and CNBC frame this as a factual political-risk story: the NRSC memo warns AI companies that data centers are a growing electoral liability in Ohio, and CNBC adds Husted's on-the-ground rebuttal that rising electricity costs stem from Democratic-era plant closures, not data centers, giving Republicans a voice to push back on the framing.
No right-of-center outlet in our set has published this story.