Ohio Sen. Jon Husted is drowning in political attacks centered on his past support for data centers. A potential life preserver could end up just out of reach.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on legislation that aims to compel technology companies to cover utility costs associated with data center buildouts. And Husted, who is seeking election in November to complete the final two years of the term he was appointed to, is trying to get his fellow senators to quickly follow suit.
But getting the Senate to leap into action this month is far from straightforward. Assuming the House acts on the measure Wednesday as planned, putting it on President Donald Trump’s desk before senators leave town for a final campaign sprint would require Husted to convince all 99 of his colleagues to agree to a quick vote — or even to let it pass without one.
There are already signs it could be a big ask, especially from Democrats who are already skeptical of the House bill and aren’t eager to give Husted a leg up in his race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, either.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who has offered his own bill aimed at preventing data centers from shifting energy costs to consumers, called the bill Husted is backing a “fig leaf” in a Tuesday interview.
“I think it’s a very symbolic piece of legislation,” said Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “I would like to see something done that actually has some teeth to protect consumers.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was noncommittal Tuesday when asked at a news conference about artificial intelligence legislation and if Democrats could support an idea like Husted’s bill, known as the Ratepayer Protection Act. The New York Democrat said that there were “many different ways to approach AI” but they wouldn’t get done unless it was on a bipartisan basis.
While Husted’s bill has one cosponsor — a fellow Republican, Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — the House bill has multiple Democratic cosponsors and passed unanimously out of the Energy and Commerce Committee in July. House Republican leaders are so confident of bipartisan approval that they’re bringing the bill to the floor under a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.
Husted insisted to reporters Tuesday that he was not connecting his push for data center legislation with the political headwinds he’s facing back in Ohio.
“I don’t look at it in those terms,” Husted said. “I just think that it’s something that is just the right thing to do. … They need to pay their own way, and not pass their cost on.”
But with Brown hammering him on the Ohio airwaves as the “face of data centers,” Husted is facing an acute need to reassure voters on the issue. The Senate GOP campaign arm warned in a memo last month that data centers are “the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck” and that if Husted loses it could have negative consequences for the industry.
Getting the Ratepayer Protection Act to Trump’s desk would give Husted and other Republicans a key talking point to raise in TV ads and debate appearances as many acknowledge that the growing backlash from voters over data centers is becoming a grave political liability.
If Husted can’t get an across-the-board agreement to hold a vote, he could go to the floor and try to pass his bill by unanimous consent, but any one senator would be able to block his attempt.
Asked whether he would object to such an effort, Heinrich said he hadn’t considered it yet, but added that “given the pressures consumers are under right now, they deserve something more real.”
Schumer helped recruit Brown into the race against Husted, and the former senator has been running ads against Husted for months over his support for data centers as lieutenant governor.
“He led the path to bring data centers to Ohio and gave billions of tax dollars to make it happen,” the narrator says in one Brown campaign ad from earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Husted’s Senate office said in a statement that Husted has “always believed that it should be up to the local communities whether or not they want new data centers.”
Husted joined Trump in March for the signing of a “ratepayer protection pledge” aimed at defusing the issue for Republicans. The Husted spokesperson said his bill “simply codifies this pledge, and what he has always firmly believed: tech companies should be held accountable, and local ratepayers should not have to pay for new data centers.”
Democrats view Ohio as one of their best pickup opportunities on the Senate map, with political prognosticators viewing the contest as a tossup. If Husted is able to keep his seat in a state Trump won by more than 11 points in 2024, it would be a boon for Republicans’ fight to hold onto the majority.
The data center bill is not the only way Republicans could use the Senate floor to boost Husted, who was appointed last year by Gov. Mike DeWine to fill the seat vacated by JD Vance when he became vice president.
Two GOP senators granted anonymity to speak candidly said they believed a Tuesday vote on cryptocurrency regulation, for instance, was designed to help Husted. Democrats blocked the bill from advancing, and Republicans are hoping the crypto industry spends heavily in Ohio to defeat Brown, a former Senate Banking chair — as they did in 2024.
Republicans are also discussing if they can bring up a House-passed bill cracking down on lawmaker stock trading that also has voter ID language attached to it. Husted has pushed voter ID legislation in the Senate.
Asked about the data center bill Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in an interview that “we’ll see how it goes there and get it over here.”
Unprompted, he added, “Since you mentioned Senator Husted, I would also like to do the stock trading ban, which also requires a mandatory showing of voter ID.”
Husted said that he believed his data center bill is “broadly supported” and that he’s hoping a strong House vote will “give us some good momentum to get it done in the Senate.”
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune cautioned that it would take buy-in from all 100 senators to move it quickly.
“We’ll see what the options are over here,” Thune said in an interview. “He obviously has the option to try and ask [for unanimous consent] to get it done.”
Anthony Cruz contributed to this report.
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