Ohio data center plan shakes Senate race

In Sunbury, a suburb east of Columbus, a proposal to build a massive Amazon Web Services data center has reshaped the local political landscape. The plan would bring several hundred megawatts of electricity demand, prompting a referendum that would ban any data center of at least 25 megawatts. The referendum sits on the same ballot as the U.S. Senate race, where Republican Jon Husted faces Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Local opposition grows

Local residents feel the threat most acutely. Larry Thode, a long‑time Republican who lives next to the proposed site, says he distrusted his party’s handling of tech‑company influence and now feels let down. His neighbor Alicia Doty, usually voting Democratic, joined the petition, warning that the data center could transform their farmland into industrial zones, as happened in nearby New Albany.

The data‑center debate has become a proxy for broader party politics. A recent poll found Ohio voters named AI and data centers as a top issue, with 3 percent citing it, and that Ohioans trust Democrats on the topic by an 11‑point margin. Sherrod Brown has seized the issue, labeling Husted as “the face of data centers” and criticizing state tax‑breaks that attract Amazon.

Legislative battle over data centers

Husted’s record on energy policy is mixed. He helped draft a 2008 renewable‑energy target that set a 25 percent goal for Ohio by 2025, but later helped repeal most of that law. He also backed nuclear projects such as House Bill 6, which became linked to a bribery scandal involving former Speaker Larry Householder.

If the Sunbury ban passes, it could signal broader resistance to data‑center development that might sway Ohio voters toward the Democrats in the Senate race, potentially giving them the 51 seats needed to control the chamber. Even if the measure fails, the debate shows how local environmental concerns can shape national politics, a pattern that analysts say is reshaping campaign strategies in competitive states.