Ohio's Husted defends data centers as GOP warns of Senate risk
Why it matters: Republicans see voter anger over power bills as a growing threat to a seat crucial to keeping their Senate majority.
Sen. Jon Husted defended President Donald Trump's energy agenda on Friday after Republicans warned that backlash over data centers could hurt his Ohio Senate reelection bid. Speaking at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in Middletown alongside Vice President JD Vance, Husted argued rising electricity prices stem from past power plant closures, not from new data center projects. The National Republican Senatorial Committee wrote in a memo this week that data centers are a "sleeper issue" as voters worry about utility costs. Ohio has several major projects, including a proposed 10-gigawatt campus in Pike County that CNBC reported could cost more than $500 billion. Husted is narrowly trailing former Sen. Sherrod Brown, according to recent polling cited by CNBC.