Exclusive: GOP issues stark warning to AI companies

Aug 19, 2026 - Politics & Policy

# Exclusive: GOP issues stark warning to AI companies

By Alex Isenstadt. NOTE FOR WRITER: page <title>/og:title reads "Exclusive: GOP warns AI companies that data centers are politically radioactive"; the on-page H1 above is the display headline. Both are verbatim from the fetch.

The Senate GOP campaign arm, in a private memo to top AI companies, warns that toxic views of U.S. data centers are killing the party's chances of holding a vital seat in Ohio.

- In the memo, obtained by Axios, the National Republican Senatorial Committee says Democrats have made data centers a "centerpiece" of their campaign to defeat Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) — and that it's working.
- "If he loses 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."

**Why it matters:** Republicans want the AI companies to do whatever it takes to stem the public backlash.

**The big picture:** 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, and more broadly have become a proxy for feelings about AI.

- Tech giants are scrambling to pull together media campaigns to try to shift opinion before it hardens locally and nationally.
- But Democrats aren't dummies. They see the same polls and are moving fast.
- Even politicians who previously embraced data centers, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), are racing to crack down on them this election year. On Tuesday, Shapiro, ahead of a possible 2028 presidential run, signed an executive order imposing "strict guardrails" for data-center development.

**There are now** more than 4,000 data centers online across the U.S., with another 3,000-plus centers proposed or in progress.

- They're designed to power the AI that's transforming the American economy, but have drawn protests from communities nationwide because they require massive amounts of electricity, can drive up utility bills, use huge amounts of water, involve enormous warehouse-like structures and provide few jobs.
- They also have become local targets for residents' anxiety about how AI is eliminating jobs.

**Zoom in:** Husted's opponent in Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), has spent millions of dollars on a summer ad campaign calling Husted "the face of data centers in Ohio."

- Republicans say the issue is especially potent in heavily blue-collar Ohio because the state has several big data center projects in the works. Nvidia and OpenAI have announced a project in the last few days. Meta, Vantage and QTS also have projects there.
- The NRSC memo says Brown has made data centers his "de facto opponent."

**By the numbers:** A Fox News poll last week showed Brown leading Husted by 8 points.

**State of play:** Republicans say in the memo, headlined "Ohio Data Center Risk," that it's up to AI companies to improve perceptions of data centers by explaining "who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one."

- "Until that happens, the issue will continue to dominate this race," the memo says.

**The bottom line:** The memo argues that a Husted loss would cause long-lasting damage to AI companies in their push to build data centers nationwide to power future generations of AI.

- "If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio," the party warns.

_Axios' Maria Curi contributed reporting._

===== EMBEDDED DOCUMENT (verbatim, as rendered on the Axios page under "NRSC data center memo | DocumentCloud") =====

MEMORANDUM

TO:Interested Parties

FROM:NRSC

RE:Ohio Data Center Risk

DATE:August 18, 2026

Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown are in a dead heat. Private polling has been consistent: when voters hear

Brown's positions and his record, Husted pulls away. That is still the path in this race. The new ingredient

(and the new problem) is data centers.

Ohio is one of the leaders in building these AI factories. Brown has made his opposition to them the

centerpiece of his campaign against Husted. Brown is using it because it works. More than any other

thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted's neck. If he loses and data

centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice — and they will not go near the next

one.

THE DATA CENTER BRAND IS THE ANCHOR

Data centers are the centerpiece in the case Sherrod Brown is litigating; he has made them his de facto

opponent, and no one is correcting the record. Brown has put three unique television ads on the air and

spent millions doing it, to the tune of more than 6,000 points on television. This is more than a month's

worth of messaging during one of the most critical times in the race.

Our polling indicates that this messaging is significantly more effective than traditional messaging tracts,

as it introduces new information on a highly relevant, emerging topic. This has become a sleeper issue

for the entire election cycle.

WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN

Campaigns or party committees can not fix the toxic brand of an entire segment of the economy. The

companies that need these projects built have to fix how Ohioans see them: who benefits, who pays, and

why a community should want one. Until that happens, the issue will continue to dominate this race. If it

is still this potent in November, elected officials everywhere will treat Ohio as their reason to work against
data centers in the future.If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign

against them will expand far beyond Ohio.

OUR MESSAGE

While the perceptions of data centers are weak, the American people are with us. By overwhelming

margins, the American people prefer a Republican candidate who wants to only let data centers be built

in communities that approve them by a local vote of the people, and that pay for their own power, water,

and other utilities versus a Democrat candidate who wants to stop data center construction altogether,

which will cause America to lose the AI race to China.

The federal government has already set the standard to ensure these things happen. Under President

Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge:

●All new energy supply for data centers is new power. No burden on existing customers.

●Data centers pay their own way on generation and infrastructure.

●No higher costs on families or ratepayers.

●That investment strengthens the grid (upgrades, backup generation)

●American communities are strengthened (jobs, workforce, long-term growth).

BOTTOM LINE

The American people are still making up their minds on data centers, but the current perception is

negative. Sherrod Brown has made data centers the center piece of his campaign yet Ohio is still a
toss-up. If Husted loses because of data centers, the industry will be blamed, and elected officials or

other parties will learn a cautionary lesson.