Ohio has more data centers than all but four states. The world’s largest data center is being built in Pike County. Republican policymakers have funneled billions of public dollars into the hands of big tech corporations to build data centers, but without the return on investment we’d expect. Meanwhile, data centers are sucking up our water, polluting our air and driving up our energy bills. Residents in communities across the state are struggling to get answers from local officials who sign nondisclosure agreements. Many communities are trying to ban data centers, or at least pause new development.

A poll from Bowling Green University found that more than 7 in 10 support a temporary ban on new data center construction. Candidates are reading the writing on the wall – and releasing plans to curtail unbridled data center development and ensure Ohio communities reap financial rewards. But for Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted, their records will be hard to escape.

Ramaswamy makes money almost every time a data center is built in Ohio and as governor, he would oversee the major agencies in charge of regulating them.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a billionaire whose investment portfolio includes every part of the data center supply chain: chip manufacturers, hardware suppliers, real estate developers, tech companies that operate the facilities, and more. He has vast holdings in the AI and Cryptocurrency companies that depend on data centers. Ramaswamy claims climate change is a hoax and calls for more mining and fracking. It just so happens that he’s also deeply invested in fossil fuels, which would be used to power data centers. Meanwhile, CEO’s and others from data-center linked companies have contributed vast sums to get Ramaswamy elected. Yet despite all these conflicts, As governor, Ramaswamy would oversee agencies like the Ohio Power Siting Board and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), which regulate data centers as well as JobsOhio, which provides them with generous incentives.

After Dr. Amy Acton called for a conditional moratorium on data centers, Vivek Ramaswamy released his own data center plan which is lacking in several important ways:

The billion dollar hole: No reference to the more than $1.5 billion data center sales tax exemption that Gov. DeWine paused.
Big Tech secret deals can continue: Says nothing of the Non-Disclosure agreements the Big Tech companies behind data centers force local governments to sign.
No mention of his own financial interests: If elected, will he look out for us, or his investments?
Power plants in your backyard: His plan will require data centers to build massive power plants alongside their facilities – but makes no mention of if or how local communities will have a say over these power plants. Under Ramaswamy, local communities keep getting screwed.
Benefit zone plan has no teeth: The "benefit zone" plan to reduce electric bills that he describes would likely require PUCO rulemaking, PJM interconnection approval, and Federal Energy Regulator Commission jurisdiction over wholesale power transactions, and voluntary utility cooperation — none of which are within the governor's unilateral authority.

Ramaswamy Data Center Narrative

[Values] Whether we live in a big city like Cleveland or a small village like Ashville – most Ohioans believe we should have a say over what happens in our communities.

[Villian] But big tech billionaires act like everything belongs to them – and they want to use our public dollars and our water resources to build data centers that drive up our electric bills and damage our land. As governor Vivek Ramaswamy would oversee the regulation of data centers, but his investment portfolio gets fatter with every new data center built in our state.

[Vision] We can determine the future of our communities. As a candidate for governor, Vivek should be worried about how to help Ohioans’ fulfill our hopes, dreams and needs — not about enriching himself and his big tech buddies.

Topline Messages: Ramaswamy & Data Centers

More data centers mean more money in Vivek and fellow big tech billionaires’ pockets. We can’t trust him to look out for us.
Vivek’s so-called data center plan doesn’t protect Ohioans – it’s a desperate attempt to protect his flailing campaign.

Ramaswamy Data Center Sample Message Points

Ramaswamy gets rich off data centers. Now that he’s falling behind in the polls, he’s trying to pretend that he hasn’t been cheerleading the data center boom this whole time.
As governor, Vivek Ramaswamy would oversee the regulation of data centers and whether we use our public dollars to give them tax breaks. ButEvery step of the way, he makes money when a data center gets built: the dirty energy used to power them, the real estate they sit on, the chips and hardware used to run them, and the tech & crypto that depend on them.
Vivek's data center plan is smoke and mirrors. At the end of the day, he and his billionaire friends would keep getting rich on our backs. Vivek would still keep Ohioans in the dark about local deals. He still would use our money for big tech tax breaks. And he wouldn’t give us a say over whether data centers can build dirty power plants in our communities.
Big tech billionaires like Elon Musk are bankrolling Vivek’s run for governor. They need data centers to power their products.
Before he realized that Ohioans don’t want data centers in their backyards, Vivek spent years telling us the data center boom is “good” and that he wants more of them in Ohio.
Radioactive frac waste from injection wells are threatening to contaminate Ohioans’ water supplies. But under Vivek’s plan to power data centers, we’d see even more fracking and the millions of gallons of toxic waste it produces.
Vivek has millions of dollars invested in crypto and bitcoin. Without data centers to power it, cryptocurrency has no value.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has called Sen. Jon Husted “the face of data centers” in Ohio. As lieutenant governor, he managed the “InnovateOhio” portfolio to embrace new technology and played a central role in securing new data center projects. He championed millions of dollars in tax breaks for data center companies. Sherrod Brown is attacking Husted’s record of bringing data centers to the state with huge tax giveaways. In response, Husted introduced the federal “Ratepayer Protection Act” which would ask states to consider measures to make data centers pay for their electricity usage. Otherwise, Husted says regulating data centers should be left to state and local governments. He calls for more fossil fuel and nuclear power to keep up with the growing data center energy demand.

Jon Husted Data Center Narrative

[Values] Ohioans work hard to provide for themselves and their loved ones. We should be able to keep the lights on, heat our homes in the winter, and cool them in the summer – without going broke.

[Villian] But Jon Husted has spent his career greasing the wheels for his corporate backers – so they can make even bigger profits by driving up our costs. As Lt. Governor he was at the center of the FirstEnergy corruption scandal that forced us to pay more for their failing coal and nuclear plants – and he rolled out the red carpet for data centers – using our tax money to lure them to Ohio so they can drive up our utility bills, soak up our water, and destroy our landscape.

[Vision] Ohioans don’t expect other people to pay our bills for us – and we shouldn’t have to pay data centers’ bills for them, either. Tell Jon Husted that we should be using public dollars to make our schools better and our communities stronger, not big tech’s profit margins wider.

Husted Top Lines

Jon Husted has been the face of data centers in Ohio. As Lt. Governor, he was at the center of many of the biggest data center tax break deals, and rolled out the red carpet for the free for all we’re experiencing today.
Jon Husted uses his office to pad the profits of his corporate donors - on our dime. He was at the center of the FirstEnergy scandal which we’re still paying for, and funneled millions of public money to data center companies to build here.

Husted Sample Message Points

Jon Husted opened the door for data centers to flood Ohio, handing out huge tax breaks to Big Tech – jacking up our electric bills and bulldozing our communities.
Jon Husted likes to make us pay for his corporate donors' bills. He helped FirstEnergy get its power plant bailout that we are still paying for – and he gave big tech our money to build data centers – and left us paying their electric bills.
As Lt. Gov., Jon Husted was at the center of billions of dollars worth of big data center deals. Like the 2019 deal he pushed to give Google $43.5 million in state tax incentives and a 15-year abatement on local property taxes to build a data center in central Ohio.
Husted is in the pocket of utilities and big tech corporations like Google, Coinbase, Oracle – and Palantir, the surveillance tech company founded by Peter Theil.
Now Husted is trying to run away from his data center record – and introduced a bill that would just ask states nicely to make data centers pay for the costs of their own power – without any real teeth.

Toolkit: The Faces of AI Data Centers in Ohio

Context

Vivek Ramaswamy & Data Centers

Jon Husted & Data Centers

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