Ohio data-center fight reshapes the 2026 midterm battlegrounds

Residents across Ohio are mounting a fierce opposition to proposed data centers, and the revolt is beginning to reshape the state's politics ahead of the November midterm elections. In Grove City, a conservative community of about 45,180 people outside Columbus, neighbors have organized against a proposed 310-acre cloud-computing campus, and their campaign has pushed local officials toward a yearlong moratorium on data-center construction.

The Grove City project is being proposed by Headwaters Site Development, a Texas-based company that intends to build a storage facility on rural farmland about 10 miles outside Columbus. Patty Spillman, a 63-year-old retired bus driver and Republican who has voted for President Donald Trump three times, owns a 165-year-old farm directly across the street from the proposed complex. She and Jen Belt, a 51-year-old artist and marketing contractor who is a Democrat, co-lead a group called Protect Grove City. Together they have mobilized neighbors who have posted "no data center" signs on their lawns, and they say residents are concerned about water usage, noise and environmental effects, energy costs and the secrecy surrounding the project. Spillman noted that her mother-in-law turned down an above-market offer from Headwaters of around $1.5 million for 30 acres of land.

The pushback has been significant enough to alter local government decisions. The Grove City council passed a yearlong moratorium on data-center construction, and in November residents will vote on a proposal that would make all large developments subject to voter approval. The debate has also strained the community's intimate politics. Facebook groups are filled with bickering, angry residents have packed council meetings, and activists have filed freedom-of-information requests seeking records of city officials' communications about the referendum. Longtime Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage and other local leaders have opposed the ballot initiative, arguing that restricting development would hurt economic growth.

The concern extends well beyond Grove City. Ohio has roughly 200 data centers, making it one of the largest hubs in the country. The state went from a swing state to a Republican-leaning one in the Trump era, but Republicans themselves acknowledge that the wave of opposition has opened a door for Ohio Democrats in the midterms. Nick Owens, a former county GOP chair and a Trump delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention, now works with the anti-data-center group Conserve Ohio. "I'm as Republican as they get, but it's going to be a tough year for Republicans in the state of Ohio," Owens said. He added that he can contact people across the state from different political and economic backgrounds, "because we're all united about this."

Public opinion data points in the same direction. A national Gallup poll published in May found that more than 70% of voters oppose building an AI data center in their area. In Ohio, where the average household's electric bill has climbed about 15% in the past year and more than 66% over the past decade, the sentiment is more negative still. A September survey by Bowling Green State University found that nearly 80% of Ohioans support a moratorium on data centers. More than 100 local Ohio governments have reportedly enacted moratoriums, and in November at least 10 will vote on adding a data-center ban to their charters, while two others will decide whether to recall mayors who approved data-center deals.

Opponents see the facilities, and the powerful AI industry backing them, as a threat to their safety, jobs, household budgets and quality of life. It is not yet clear how decisive the issue will be at the polls. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, voters ranked the economy, the future of democracy, health care, education and immigration as the top five issues, and data centers did not rank among them on their own. Democratic candidates, however, have tied the issue to those broader themes, promising to ease affordability concerns through restrictions on data centers, pledging to challenge opaque deals between Silicon Valley and local governments, and casting AI companies as beneficiaries of an unequal economy. According to the analytics firm AdImpact, $137.6 million has been spent this cycle on broadcast ads about data centers, with Democrats accounting for an estimated 77% of that spending. Trump has positioned himself as one of the industry's strongest champions, deriding opponents of data centers as "backwards and poor." UCLA political-science professor Megan Mullin said the populist anger has "become the one thing that unites Americans right now," linking it to broader concerns about affordability, energy costs and suspicion of AI.

6Views

Author

Connor Quincy

Technology Reporter

Connor Quincy covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

All articles by this author