Husted defends energy policy as GOP warns data centers put Ohio seat at risk

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, defended President Donald Trump‘s energy and economic agenda on Friday during an appearance at a southwestern Ohio steel mill with Vice President JD Vance, as Republicans warn that backlash over data centers could be putting his seat in jeopardy.

Husted’s comments come days after the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, warned in a memo that data centers have become a “sleeper issue” this election cycle, as Americans increasingly worry about the impact they could have on their utility costs.

Ohio is home to several large data center projects, including a proposed 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County that could cost more than $500 billion.

But higher electricity costs, Husted said, are the result of Democratic policies, not data center construction.

“You want to have lower electricity prices — I want to tell you why they’re rising. Because Congress and, under the Obama administration, under the Biden administration, they closed 23 power plants in the state of Ohio, representing half the electricity we use on a daily basis,” Husted said at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant, in Middletown, Ohio. “Radical climate policies did that.”

Aging power plants have been closed in the state under both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations in recent years.

Husted and Vance were joined by other GOP candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor who is locked in a close race with Democrat Amy Acton.

According to recent polling, Husted is narrowly trailing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in his bid for reelection. Lauren Chou, a spokesperson for Brown’s campaign, said in a statement that Husted had played a pivotal role during his time as the state’s lieutenant governor in securing tax breaks for data centers, which she said were the true cause of higher utility bills.

Husted’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response.

Husted’s seat is seen as crucial for Republicans if they want to retain their majority in the Senate in the next Congress. The GOP is widely favored to keep the Senate, though Trump’s falling approval ratings, rising inflation, the ongoing Iran war and growing data center anxieties are causing concerns within the party.

“If voters’ perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio,” the NRSC wrote in the Tuesday memo, which was obtained by CNBC and first reported by Axios. 

Husted, meanwhile, touted the Trump administration’s investment in manufacturing in Ohio, including a $500 million Department of Energy grant to Cleveland-Cliffs, which was initially awarded by the Biden administration to finance a hydrogen-powered furnace at the Middletown facility, but now will be used for other upgrades, including to its blast furnace and artificial intelligence technologies.

Cleveland-Cliffs said in a statement it will match the DOE’s funding, for a total $1 billion investment in the facility. The company said the project would employ more than 1,500 workers during construction.

“We can bring back manufacturing to this great country, in places like Middletown and across our great state,” Husted said. “And why is it important that we do this? Investments like this, a billion-dollar investment right here? Because it’s job security, it’s economic security, it’s national security.”