It’s unusual when a competitive Senate races hinges on a single issue, but as both parties eye Ohio’s Senate race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee believes Democrats are making real headway by focusing on data centers — and it might very well cost appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted his seat.
Axios reported that the NRSC prepared a private memo for leading AI companies, warning that Americans’ attitudes toward data centers have turned toxic. “If [Husted loses in Ohio] and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next one,” the memo says. “This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”
The Axios report added, “AI CEOs and top Republicans share in the rising panic. They tell us internal polls show data centers are as popular as spent nuclear waste.”
Just hours after the report was published, Donald Trump held a White House meeting with prominent figures from the cryptocurrency industry, and the president took the opportunity to share some fresh comments on the issue making so many other Republicans nervous.
“I can say, if I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous,” the president said. “And if you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it.”
In an apparent reference to data centers, Trump added, “So I would say that maybe you can use a little public relations help.”
By all appearances, he seems awfully eager to provide that public relations help. In a Punchbowl News interview two weeks ago, the president also said, “I just think it’s a mistake” to be against data centers, adding, “They’re the most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen.”
Days earlier, he similarly told Fox News, “Data centers, if you look at the stats, everything’s good around [them].”
Part of the problem with this was the simple fact Trump was wrong. As Paul Waldman explained in a recent piece for MS NOW, “Data centers require massive amounts of power, potentially straining the local grid and causing energy prices to spike. They use enormous quantities of water to cool the equipment, leading residents to fear for the future of their water supply. And many residents who live near one report an unceasing hum from the computers, fans, generators and other equipment, which can make living near a data center intolerable.”
But the other part of the problem is that the White House keeps trying to persuade the American mainstream to embrace data centers anyway, and the public keeps moving in the opposite direction — as even the National Republican Senatorial Committee is willing to acknowledge.
To be sure, the backlash is multifaceted and doesn’t fall neatly along partisan or ideological lines. But confronted with evidence that this issue is a dangerous one for the GOP, the president appears content to position his administration as a champion of data centers anyway, seemingly indifferent to the political risks.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Trump ignores GOP warnings, again leans into support for data centers appeared first on MS NOW.
