GOP Memo Warns AI Firms: Data Centers Radioactive

The memo puts the blame — and the fix — on the industry. Republicans wrote that it is up to AI companies to improve perceptions by explaining "who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one." Until that happens, it says, "the issue will continue to dominate this race."

On Ohio specifically, the memo says: "Ohio is one of the leaders in building these AI factories. [Sherrod] 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."

Brown has spent millions on a summer ad campaign branding Husted "the face of data centers in Ohio." The NRSC memo says Brown has made data centers his "de facto opponent."

Republicans are not unanimous behind the industry. Tiffany said in his ad's caption that "there should be no new data centers in Wisconsin unless they meet strict standards that protect our state: no taxpayer subsidies, no development on productive farmland, no higher utility costs passed on to families and businesses, no secret NDAs, and full local control."

Abbott has been blunter still: "Any AI data center even thinking about coming here, they got to bring their own money, bring their own power, reuse their own water, and do it in a way that reduces the cost of electricity for residents across our state. We must eliminate the tax break they are getting."

Axios reports that AI CEOs and top Republicans say their internal polls show data centers are about as popular as spent nuclear waste, and have become a proxy for how voters feel about AI generally.