Ohio: Husted v. Brown on Data Centres

← Start with the trailer — how to read this series, and the six U.S. Senate races it covers.

Data Centres & AI

The candidates in this race are offering different approaches:

Ohio: both candidates support locals having a say; Husted’s bill proposed that all states consider (not mandate) making data centres pay for grid upgrades. A separate bipartisan permitting bill, introduced Sep 30, 2026, would require data centres of at least 20 MW to pay the grid costs they add.

Federal and cross-border context

• On Sep 17, 2026, Senator Husted, Ohio (R) failed to get unanimous consent to pass his Ratepayer Protection Act in the Senate; the House version, H.R. 9340, passed 417–3. On Sep 30, 2026, a Senate vote to advance H.R. 9340 fell short of the 60 needed, 57–43.
• US–Canada electricity trade was worth $3.2B in 2025, 67% of it imports from Canada; Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s threat to cut power to Minnesota, Michigan and New York is back on the table, though in August he said “we need to get together and decide if we’re going to put surcharges on the electricity”, under increased trade tensions.
• Earlier this month, Ontario’s grid operator inked a six-month deal to import 600 MW of U.S. power; coming from Alpha Generation, starting November 1, it will be used to cover winter maintenance at generating stations, including at Pickering.

Ohio special: Husted (R) v Brown (D)

• Ohio is facing a load problem with American Electric Power (AEP), with projected data centre load outpacing customer load.
• Data centres have become a central theme in a heated election for Ohio’s Senate seat.
• No debates are planned in the Ohio race, so there’s no recorded debate exchange on data centres from either candidate.
• Sherrod Brown’s (D) billboards call Husted “The Face of Data Centers” and his ads say he will “require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you”.
• Jon Husted (R) said before the Senate vote, which failed, that if Democrats blocked his bill, it would prove “they do not care about affordability”.
• AEP Ohio’s 17,861 MW of contracted data-centre load coming online through 2035, and a current customer peak of 8,000–10,500 MW (as of Feb 2026).
• Grid operator PJM Interconnection’s (PJM) 2028/29 capacity auction hit the $325/MW-day cap.
• On Oct 9, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected most of PJM’s proposal for new data-centre load, including cutting power first to large data centres that don’t bring their own supply; it kept only a 50 MW large-load definition and a registry.
• Earlier this month, Ohio’s residential utility advocate identified rising energy costs coming from “an explosive amount of demand primarily coming from data centers” (Richland Source, Oct 21, 2026).
• In August, a Republican Senate campaign committee warned tech companies that Ohio voters’ sentiment towards data centres had soured, and if it did not change, the campaign against them could spread far beyond Ohio.
• Both candidates agree – data centres should pay for their own power.

Missing

• Missing perspective: Capital Power is a Canadian company that is pitching an Ohio gas plant as a data centre site that can be co-located, but the issue remains who will pay for the power.
• Missing picture: As early as this past spring, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine paused new data-centre tax exemption requests on May 27, 2026; Husted backed DeWine’s original push for data centres, as lieutenant governor.
• Data centres have taken centre stage in Ohio, with limits or bans part of 18 Ohio communities’ November 3 ballots.
• Missing narrative: Both candidates agree the centres should pay for their own power; they disagree on the tax breaks.

What if

Renewables & Clean Energy

For Canadian business hoping for a windfall victory at the Senate level to restore wind and solar credits, it’s unlikely before 2029. But what should be your next focus following Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)?

A newly elected Senator, on either side, could reset the conversation around more or less cuts, and for how long until they’re renegotiated.

Missing perspective

• OBBBA was signed on July 4, 2025, and it rolled back the tax breaks to renewables from Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
• Wind and solar companies can only keep those tax breaks if they had started construction by July 4, 2026 (that deadline has now passed; a June 6 federal court ruling restored the 5% safe harbor before it) or are placed in service by the end of 2027.
• For battery storage, hydro, geothermal, and nuclear, the runway for the tax breaks allows for more opportunity, so start building by the end of 2033.
• 76% of solar and 86% of wind projects due online by the end of 2028 had already been safe-harbored (counted as having started construction) (as of Nov 2025, per LevelTen Energy).
• OBBBA kept the storage credit but added foreign-sourcing limits.

Missing narrative

• The Senate vote was tied 50–50 until Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.
• Who voted for the bill that rolled back the tax credits?
  • Senators: Husted (R), Ohio; Sullivan (R), Alaska
  • Representative Hinson (R), Iowa in the House
• Who voted against that bill?
  • Senator Collins (R), Maine
• The Senate split 50–50 on July 1, 2025, and the Vice President broke the tie (51-50). Husted and Sullivan voted Yea; Collins voted Nay. The vote was on the whole bill, not the tax credits alone, and Republicans Paul and Tillis also voted Nay. Hinson voted Aye in the House.

About the author

Jared Fisk is an award-winning storytelling architect who helps mining, energy and cleantech companies define their narrative, build the content that carries it, and amplify it until the market repeats it. He works where communications, government relations and AI meet: reading how a story will land with investors, regulators and the machines that now summarize it.

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