Key facts
- Ohioans are increasingly concerned about the impact of data centers on farmland, electricity demand, and water consumption.
- A poll found 71% of Ohioans support a temporary ban on new data center construction.
- Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur is running TV ads criticizing her opponent for supporting data center tax incentives.
- Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown calls his opponent "data centers' best friend" and advocates for local decision-making on data center construction.
- Republican Vivek Ramaswamy proposed eliminating local property-tax abatements for data centers and directing revenue toward homeowner rebates.
- Democrat Amy Acton proposed restricting tax incentives and requiring developers to pay for their own power infrastructure.
Democrats are capitalizing on growing public opposition to data centers in Ohio, framing the issue as a fight against corporate influence and rising utility costs. Residents and activists are concerned about the environmental and economic impacts of these facilities, leading to local bans and statewide political debate.
In Defiance, a city of 17,000 people surrounded by farmland, residents have gathered signatures for a ballot measure to ban most new data centers and city officials have imposed a six-month moratorium. This local action is part of a broader backlash across Ohio and the nation against the expansion of AI and cloud-computing infrastructure.
Concerns about data centers' impact on farmland, electricity demand, and water consumption have deepened following the release of state tax records showing Ohio has foregone over $2 billion in sales-tax revenue through data-center incentives. A poll indicated that 71% of Ohioans support a temporary ban on new data center construction.
Democratic US Representative Marcy Kaptur is featuring data-center messaging in her reelection campaign, accusing her Republican opponent, Derek Merrin, of supporting unpopular tax incentives. Kaptur stated that politicians are allowing companies to pass the costs of their energy demands onto ratepayers while receiving billions in tax breaks. Residential electricity bills in Defiance have risen 10% to 15% in June from a year earlier.
The issue is also a focal point in the state's US Senate race, where Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown criticizes Republican Jon Husted for promoting AI infrastructure development and tax incentives. Brown's campaign stated that Ohioans, not Husted and his "billionaire friends," should decide on data center construction in their communities. Husted's campaign countered that Brown had decades in Congress to address the issue and did nothing.
Activists like Lyn Cox of Conserve Ohio believe the disclosure of tax subsidies has transformed scattered zoning disputes into a statewide political issue. Both Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and his Democratic opponent Amy Acton have proposed policies to limit data center development, including eliminating local property-tax abatements, requiring developers to cover power infrastructure costs, and limiting construction on farmland. Conserve Ohio is also pursuing a state constitutional amendment to ban data centers using more than 25 megawatts of power.