Dem Senate hopeful flip-flops on emerging issue impacting communities across US
Leo Briceno
Fox News
August 8, 2026
Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, once praised data center expansion, records show, even as he now runs on a platform opposing their development in a bid to return to the Senate.
In 2015, Brown put out a press release celebrating the construction of a third data center in central Ohio.
“This new data center is great news for New Albany and central Ohio. Amazon’s growth in central Ohio signals that this region is not only a great place to do business, but a place where people want to live and raise a family,” Brown said.
Now, just over 10 years later, Brown is painting Ohio’s 226 data centers as a drain on the state’s resources, a reversal that demonstrates how many Democrats have aligned themselves on the issue to press the case for affordability.
“Ohio’s electric grid — big corporations treat it like a game,” Brown said in a recent campaign video.
“[They’re] gobbling up energy to feed their data centers no matter how much it raises our prices. It’s the latest way they’ve rigged the system.”
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While slightly removed from those specific items, an increasing number of Democrats, like Brown, have tied data centers to the issue, arguing that they do little to pay for their own costs in terms of water and electrical use. In their view, data centers are being subsidized by the communities where they’re being built.
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Ohio, in particular, has become an increasingly important state in the data center conversation as companies like Amazon and Google have sought out state incentives for their construction.
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“I look forward to working to ensure that our region’s burgeoning logistics hub continues to grow — creating good jobs for Ohioans and helping businesses prosper,” Brown wrote.
His office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital about the scope of his objections to data center developments in Ohio.
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