January 1, Democrat’s Data Center Attack Backfires as Google Money Trail Surfaces

Wyatt’s Take

• Sherrod Brown slams Ohio data centers in ads but quietly took big money from Google lobbyists tied to the same projects.
• Google PAC and its lobbyists gave Brown over $30,000 while Brown now pretends the company is hurting working families with higher electric bills.
• Trump-backed Sen. Husted’s bill to make data centers pay their own power costs passed the House but got blocked by Senate Democrats.

Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is running a new attack ad blaming Republican Sen. Jon Husted for bringing data centers to Ohio. The spot claims the facilities drive up electric bills for local families.

The ad features a Google-owned data center in Lancaster that opened in 2023. Brown’s campaign calls the industry a burden on ratepayers.

Campaign finance records show Google’s corporate PAC gave Brown $20,000 over his career. Brown also accepted thousands more from Google lobbyists who work on permitting and energy issues.

“Apparently Google is terrible enough to put in a campaign attack ad, but perfectly acceptable when the political contributions are coming in,” said Ohio GOP strategist Mehek Cooke. “That is the contradiction Brown needs to answer. If Google’s Lancaster investment is so bad for Ohio, why was Google political money acceptable to Sherrod Brown?”

Google lobbyist Lisa Kountoupes gave Brown $3,500 in March. Another lobbyist, Michael D. Smith, has contributed $10,200 since 2017. Three more Google lobbyists added another $6,000 over the past decade.

Brown’s spokeswoman defended the ad by saying Husted is the face of data centers in Ohio. She did not explain why Brown accepted the Google money.

Cooke called the switch “Jekyll-and-Hyde politics.” Brown once celebrated an Amazon data center in central Ohio as “great news” back in 2015. Now he attacks the same industry.

Husted campaign spokeswoman Amy Natoce said Brown failed Ohio families for 32 years in Washington. She noted that Husted’s bipartisan bill to make data centers pay for their own power passed the House but was blocked by Senate Democrats.

President Donald Trump has warned that communities rejecting data centers risk falling behind in the global AI race. China is not slowing its buildout, and American families deserve reliable, affordable power.

Wyatt Matters

Working families in the heartland want honest leaders who put American energy security and lower utility bills ahead of political games. When politicians take money from the very companies they attack, it’s time to send them home.