NPR Analysis of AdImpact Data Finds More Than $45 Million Spent on Ads Mentioning Data Centers Since January
Spending was split almost evenly between ads backing Republican and Democratic candidates, and an August National Republican Senatorial Committee memo called data centers a midterm "sleeper issue."
A $45 Million Bet That Both Parties Placed on the Same Complaint
Since January, campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $45 million on political ads that mention data centers, according to an NPR analysis of tracking data from AdImpact[1]. That number alone is striking. What's stranger is how evenly it splits by party. More than $22 million backed Republican candidates. More than $21 million backed Democrats. The rest went to independents[1].
Two parties, running against each other in nearly every race on the ballot, have landed on the same target. Both sides are telling voters that giant server farms get too many tax breaks, push electricity bills higher, and need tighter rules[1]. That's not a coincidence. It's a signal that something underneath the campaign math is pulling both directions at once.
But the dollar totals hide a real difference in strategy. Democrats ran nearly twice as many ads — 127, compared to the Republicans' 67 — and spread them across more states and more races[1]. Republican spending, by contrast, was concentrated in one place: Georgia. More than half of all GOP data-center ad spending went there, and the state's governor's race alone accounted for $12.8 million across nine ads — about 30% of all data-center ad spending nationally[1]. A lot of that Georgia money was Republicans attacking other Republicans in a primary, not a fight between the parties[1].
The Memo That Leaked, and the President Who Disagreed With It
The clearest sign of anxiety inside the GOP surfaced on Aug. 18, when the National Republican Senatorial Committee circulated an internal memo titled "Ohio Data Center Risk." Axios reported on it the next day[2][7]. The memo called data centers "a sleeper issue" in the midterm cycle and said they were "the anchor hanging around Husted's neck" — a reference to Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is defending his seat against Democrat Sherrod Brown[2][7].
The memo wasn't just a warning. It was also an ask. It urged AI companies to explain "who benefits, who pays for higher costs and why communities should want data centers" — a case the NRSC said hadn't been made yet[2]. Not every Republican agreed with the memo's tone. Rep. Ashley Hutchinson, quoted by The Hill, called it "alarmist" and said the tone was "concerning"[3].
President Trump has taken the opposite public position. On Aug. 31, he wrote that communities that reject data centers will "end up being backwards and poor," adding "let Data Reign"[4]. That leaves Republicans holding two positions at once: a president publicly defending the technology his administration has staked economic and national-security arguments on, and a party campaign committee privately warning that the same technology could cost them a Senate seat[2][4].
Why the Same Bill Increase Gets Blamed on Different Things
Sherrod Brown has made Husted's data-center record the center of his Ohio campaign, calling him "the point man" for hundreds of new facilities in the state and promising to make those facilities pay the full cost of the power they use[8]. Husted has already introduced legislation along those lines, sometimes called the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require the largest electricity users — customers pulling 100 megawatts or more, roughly the draw of a small city — to cover the cost of the grid upgrades their arrival requires[8].
That policy fight turns on a mechanism worth explaining. Electricity grids are built to serve everyone who's on them, and the wires, substations and power plants are paid for collectively through customer rates. When one enormous new customer — a data center — shows up and needs as much power as tens of thousands of homes, someone has to pay for the new lines and generation to serve it. If regulators let the utility spread that cost across all customers, existing ratepayers subsidize the new arrival. If regulators make the data center pay its own way, the company's costs go up, but neighbors' bills don't. That's the argument both parties are making in different words: don't let a private company's expansion land on a retired couple's power bill[8].
The industry's answer is that data centers are being blamed for something they didn't mostly cause. An analysis by the energy consultancy E3 argues that most of the recent rise in electricity rates comes from aging power lines being replaced, storm damage being repaired, and natural gas costs rising — not from AI[12]. The Energy Information Administration projects residential electricity will average 18.2 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026, almost 5% above 2025[11]. Whether data centers are a major driver of that increase, or one factor among several, is genuinely disputed and hasn't been settled by regulators or independent researchers[12].
A Fight That Ads Can Raise but Can't Actually Settle
Public opinion has shifted fast. Polling by Public First for POLITICO found opposition to a data center within three miles of home rose from 28% in January 2026 to 41% in July, while support fell from 37% to 24%[11]. That movement helps explain why campaigns on both sides think the issue is worth spending money on. It doesn't tell voters who's actually right about the bill increase.
The industry has tried to make its own case publicly through the Data Center Coalition, but Inside Climate News reported in August that the industry's public-relations push appeared to be hardening local opposition rather than easing it — a characterization the industry disputes[13]. Meanwhile, some governors have already acted without waiting for the ad war to resolve anything. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro both moved in recent weeks to halt or limit new data-center projects[4]. In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has proposed that residents living near a data center stop paying for home electricity altogether[4].
None of this is actually decided by campaign ads, though. The question of who pays for a data center's grid connection gets settled by state utility commissions, through rate cases and interconnection agreements — a process that runs independently of who wins in November. Campaign ads can change who holds office. They can't rewrite a rate schedule.
How the Story Looks Different Depending on Who's Telling It
Coverage of the NRSC memo split along familiar lines. Right-leaning outlets treated it mainly as evidence of Republican vulnerability: the Daily Caller called it a "five-alarm fire" in Ohio, while the Washington Times framed the race as Brown's "offensive" against Husted, even though Republican ad spending on the issue slightly outpaced Democratic spending nationally[1][8][9]. Left-leaning coverage, meanwhile, tended to frame the story around Trump's public defense of data centers clashing with his own party's private warnings — a framing that turns a bipartisan story into one mainly about the president[4][14].
NPR's own headline — "Voters are fed up with data centers. Both parties are trying to cash in for midterms" — illustrates a smaller version of the same pattern. Its underlying reporting on the ad numbers is careful and split evenly by party, but "fed up" and "cash in" assert a public mood and a motive that ad-spending totals alone can't prove[1]. It's also worth noting what AdImpact's number actually measures: ads that mention data centers, not necessarily ads that attack them. The single largest race in the entire dataset was a Republican primary fight in Georgia, not a contest between the parties at all[1].
Outside the United States, there's been little independent coverage of this specific ad-spending analysis. The story so far has been carried almost entirely by U.S. outlets, reporting on a single dataset through a domestic political lens[1]. Whether that changes as more governors act on data centers, or as more Senate primaries produce their own version of the Georgia fight, is still an open question.
Summary
Political ads about data centers have become a real category of midterm spending. NPR analyzed tracking data from the ad-monitoring firm AdImpact and reported on Sept. 5, 2026 that campaigns and outside groups had spent more than $45 million since January on ads mentioning data centers in this year's governor, House and Senate races[1]. The money was split almost evenly by party. From January through August, more than $22 million went to ads supporting Republican candidates and more than $21 million to ads supporting Democrats, with independent candidates accounting for the rest[1].
The two parties are largely making the same complaint. Both say the huge server buildings get too many tax breaks, push up electricity bills, and need tighter rules[1]. But the ad counts differ from the dollar counts. Democrats ran almost twice as many spots — 127 to the Republicans' 67 — and spread them across more states and races[1]. Republican money was concentrated: more than half of the GOP's data-center ad spending went to Georgia, and Georgia's governor's race alone accounted for $12.8 million across nine ads, roughly 30% of all data-center ad spending nationally[1].
The political anxiety inside the Republican Party surfaced in a leaked memo. On Aug. 18, 2026, the National Republican Senatorial Committee circulated a document titled "Ohio Data Center Risk," first reported by Axios, which called data centers "a sleeper issue" and said they were "the anchor hanging around Husted's neck" — a reference to Republican Sen. Jon Husted's race against Democrat Sherrod Brown[2][7]. Not all Republicans agreed; The Hill reported GOP pushback describing the memo's tone as "alarmist"[3]. President Trump has taken the opposite line publicly. On Aug. 31 he said communities that reject data centers will "end up being backwards and poor"[4].
The genuine dispute is not whether the ads exist. It is how much data centers are actually to blame for what households pay for electricity, and whether that blame is being measured or assumed. Critics point to fast-rising bills in regions where data centers cluster. The industry and some energy analysts argue the biggest drivers of rate increases are aging power lines, storm rebuilding and gas prices, not AI[12][13]. That question is not settled, and the ads on both sides mostly do not try to settle it.
The Event
On Sept. 5, 2026, NPR published an analysis of political advertising data from the tracking firm AdImpact[1]. It reported that campaigns and outside groups had spent more than $45 million since January on ads mentioning data centers in 2026 gubernatorial, House and Senate races[1]. The analysis found more than $22 million of January-through-August spending backed Republican candidates and more than $21 million backed Democrats[1]. The story followed an Aug. 18, 2026 National Republican Senatorial Committee memo, reported by Axios on Aug. 19, that described data centers as "a sleeper issue" in the cycle[2].
Undisputed Facts
- NPR's analysis of AdImpact data found more than $45 million spent since January 2026 on ads mentioning data centers in governor, House and Senate races[1].
- From January through August 2026, more than $22 million of that spending supported Republican candidates and more than $21 million supported Democrats, with independents making up the remainder[1].
- Democrats ran 127 ads mentioning data centers; Republicans ran 67[1].
- Georgia's governor's race accounted for $12.8 million across nine ads, about 30% of the national total, and more than half of Republican data-center ad spending went to Georgia[1].
- An Aug. 18, 2026 NRSC memo titled "Ohio Data Center Risk" called data centers "a sleeper issue" and said they were "the anchor hanging around Husted's neck"; Axios reported it on Aug. 19[2][7].
- On Aug. 31, 2026, President Trump said communities opposing data centers would "end up being backwards and poor" and wrote "let Data Reign"[4].
- Sen. Jon Husted introduced legislation in 2026 requiring data center companies to pay for the power they use[8].
- The Energy Information Administration projects U.S. residential electricity at an average of 18.2 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026, up nearly 5% from 2025[11].
The Pressure
Strip away the moralizing and blame. What structural realities persist regardless of which narrative wins?
- Affordability is the cycle's dominant issue
- Electricity prices are rising and voters feel it. EIA projects residential power at 18.2 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026, nearly 5% above 2025[11]. Data centers are a visible, local, nameable thing to attach that increase to. Both parties reached for the same target because it is available, not because they agree on energy policy[1].
- The out-party advantage
- In a midterm, the party out of the White House benefits from any cost-of-living grievance. That makes the issue structurally more useful to Democrats even though Republicans spent slightly more on such ads — a large share of GOP spending was Republicans attacking other Republicans in Georgia's primary[1].
- Trump's AI agenda versus congressional survival
- The administration has staked economic and national-security arguments on rapid AI buildout. Individual Republicans facing 2026 voters do not carry that national interest and can defect locally, which is exactly what the NRSC memo and Husted's own bill reflect[2][8].
- Rate cases decide this, not ads
- Who pays for a data center's grid connection is set by state utility commissions through tariffs and interconnection agreements. Campaign ads change who sits in office; they do not change a rate schedule. The material outcome will be decided in regulatory proceedings after November.
Material realityElectricity demand in the United States is rising after two decades of flat growth, and it is rising fastest where data centers cluster — notably the PJM grid in the Mid-Atlantic and ERCOT in Texas[11]. Residential customers face an average 18.2 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026, up nearly 5% from 2025[11]. How much of that increase data centers cause is genuinely contested: campaign ads and consumer advocates point to wholesale price spikes in data-center-heavy regions, while an E3 analysis attributes most rate growth to transmission and distribution rebuilding, storm hardening and fuel costs[12]. Public opinion has moved sharply against nearby projects — opposition to a data center within three miles rose from 28% in January 2026 to 41% in July, per Public First polling for POLITICO, while support fell from 37% to 24%[11]. Meanwhile the buildout continues, and the tax exemptions and interconnection rules that the ads attack remain on the books in most host states.
Narrative as a weaponThree actors are shaping how this is read. The NRSC leaked, or lost, a memo whose function was partly to pressure AI companies to spend their own money defending themselves — it wants you to believe the political risk is real and urgent enough that the industry must act. Democratic campaigns want you to believe data centers are the clearest example of a broader pattern: corporate deals for the few, higher bills for everyone else. The data center industry and its coalition want you to believe the bill increase has many causes and that AI is being scapegoated for a grid that was aging anyway. NPR's number sits underneath all three, and it is narrower than the coverage suggests: AdImpact counted ads that mention data centers, not ads that attack them, and the single biggest race in the dataset was a Republican primary fight in Georgia[1]. Also note the polling range in circulation. Some coverage has cited figures above 70% opposition; the sourced surveys we found put it at 41% in July and 46% in a September Public First/ITIF poll — and ITIF is a technology-industry-funded think tank, which cuts against reading its number as inflated.
How Each Side Sees It
Each major actor’s view — how it frames things, its underlying incentive, and how it’s materially affected. Tap a side to read it.
Frames it asRepublicans running on this issue say they are defending ratepayers and taxpayers, not attacking technology. Their argument is that a data center is a private business that should pay its own way. If a company uses enough power for a small city, it should pay the full cost of the wires and generation that serve it — not shift that cost onto a retired couple's monthly bill. They also object to state sales-tax exemptions on servers and equipment, arguing that a factory paying full freight should not subsidize a competitor's warehouse of chips. The NRSC's own memo urged AI companies to explain "who benefits, who pays for higher costs and why communities should want data centers" — a demand for a case they say has not been made[2]. Sen. Husted's answer was legislation making data centers pay for the power they use[8].
WhyHold the Senate majority in a cycle where affordability polls badly for the incumbent party. The NRSC memo was explicitly about a single race it feared losing, and it warned that a Husted loss would spread the anti-data-center campaign "far beyond Ohio"[2][7].
Impact on themRepublicans are caught between their own president and their own polling. Trump publicly defends data centers while the party's Senate committee privately warns they are a liability[2][4]. Some Republicans have distanced themselves from the memo, calling its tone "alarmist"[3].
Frames it asDemocrats fold data centers into a broader affordability and corporate-favoritism message: Republicans cut sweetheart deals for large companies, and ordinary households get the bill[1][8]. Sherrod Brown has made this the centerpiece of his Ohio campaign, calling Husted "the point man" for hundreds of new Ohio data centers and promising to make the facilities pay the full cost of their electricity[8]. The underlying principle they invoke is old and not especially left-wing: a utility is a monopoly, its costs are shared, and when one enormous customer arrives, the rules should make sure the rest of the customers are not worse off.
WhyWin back Senate and House seats using an economic message that tests well with both parties' voters. Polling by Public First for POLITICO found opposition to a nearby data center rose from 28% in January to 41% in July 2026, with the fastest growth among Democrats[11].
Impact on themDemocrats ran nearly twice as many data-center ads as Republicans and spread them across more states[1]. That breadth suggests they see the issue as usable in many races, not just one.
Frames it asThe industry's strongest case is that it is being blamed for a bill increase it did not mostly cause. Electricity rates are rising for several reasons at once: utilities are replacing decades-old poles and wires, rebuilding after storms, and paying more for natural gas. An analysis by the consultancy E3 argues data centers are one driver among these, not the dominant one[12]. Operators also point out that large new customers can, under the right rate design, spread fixed grid costs over more kilowatt-hours and push average bills down rather than up. And they argue the buildings bring construction jobs, property-tax revenue and the domestic compute capacity that U.S. AI competitiveness depends on. Their objection to the ads is that a 30-second spot cannot carry any of that.
WhyProtect state tax exemptions and fast permitting, and avoid moratoriums or special "large load" tariffs that would raise their costs. The Data Center Coalition has run its own public campaign in response to the criticism[13].
Impact on themThe industry is now a named target in both parties' ads. Inside Climate News reported in August 2026 that the industry's PR push was backfiring, hardening rather than softening local opposition[13] — a characterization the industry disputes.
Frames it asThis group is not organized as one side, and its members disagree. Local opponents argue they get the noise, the water use, the transmission lines and the higher bills, while the jobs number after construction ends is small. Supporters in host communities point to property-tax revenue that can fund schools without raising local taxes. State regulators sit in the middle: their statutory job is to set rates that are "just and reasonable" and to decide who pays for new power lines. That decision is the actual mechanism the whole fight turns on, and it is made in rate cases, not in ads.
WhyCommunities want the revenue without the bill increase. Regulators want to avoid stranding costs on households if a data center later shuts down or shrinks.
Impact on themSeveral governors have moved. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro both acted in recent weeks to halt or limit new data center projects[4]. In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy proposed that residents near a data center stop paying for home electricity entirely[4].
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The Bias Ledger average rating 4.3
The same story, as framed by outlets across the spectrum, ordered least to most biased. The bias score (1 = straight, 10 = heavily spun) is an AI assessment of that framing — click an outlet to see its track record. The tell is the word choice or omission that reveals the angle.
| Outlet | Vantage | Bias | How they frame it | The tell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNBC | U.S. center, business | 2 | "Trump says U.S. communities opposing AI data centers could end up 'backwards and poor'" | Quote-led and plain. Business framing means the electricity-cost dispute gets more space than the campaign-ad framing, which shifts what the reader thinks the story is about. |
| NPR | U.S. center-left, public radio | 3 | "Voters are fed up with data centers. Both parties are trying to cash in for midterms" | The reporting on the AdImpact numbers is careful and evenly split by party. The headline is not: "fed up" and "cash in" state a public mood and a cynical motive that the data — ad dollars — cannot establish. |
| Axios | U.S. center | 3 | "Exclusive: GOP warns AI companies that data centers are politically radioactive" | Straight scoop on a leaked document. "Politically radioactive" is Axios's compression, not the memo's phrase; the memo's own word was "sleeper issue." |
| CNN | U.S. center-left | 4 | "A uniquely bipartisan backlash against data centers shakes up the midterms" | Foregrounds bipartisanship, which is accurate to the spending split. "Shakes up" is a forecast, not a finding — the piece does not show any race changing hands. |
| The Washington Times | U.S. right | 5 | "Brown's offensive on data centers defines his Ohio Senate fight with Husted" | Casts the issue as a Democratic attack strategy — "offensive" — rather than a shared bipartisan message, even though Republican spending on such ads slightly exceeded Democratic spending[1]. |
| The Daily Caller | U.S. right | 6 | "Unearthed Memo Shines Light On GOP's Five-Alarm Fire In Ohio" | "Five-alarm fire" is the outlet's escalation of a memo that used the cooler phrase "sleeper issue." Covers the political risk to Republicans while largely skipping whether the underlying rate claims hold up. |
| MS NOW (Opinion) | U.S. left, opinion-labeled commentary blog; rebranded from MSNBC in Nov. 2025 after Comcast spun cable networks into Versant Media Group | 7 | "Trump ignores GOP warnings, again leans into support for data centers" | Reframes a two-party ad-spending story as a Trump-defies-his-own-party story. The word "again" adds a pattern claim the article's facts do not carry on their own. MaddowBlog is commentary/opinion content, not the newsroom's straight reporting. |
References
- Voters are fed up with data centers. Both parties are trying to cash in for midterms — NPR · U.S. public radio, center-left in framing; federally and listener funded
- Exclusive: GOP warns AI companies that data centers are politically radioactive — Axios · U.S. center, insider-politics beat; owned by Cox Enterprises
- Hutchinson on NRSC data centers memo: 'Alarmist' tone 'concerning' — The Hill · U.S. center, Capitol Hill trade press
- Trump says U.S. communities opposing AI data centers could end up 'backwards and poor' — CNBC · U.S. business news, investor-oriented; owned by Comcast/NBCUniversal
- A uniquely bipartisan backlash against data centers shakes up the midterms — CNN · U.S. center-left
- AI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to elections — CNBC · U.S. business news
- Leaked memo about data centers shows GOP worried about Ohio's U.S. Senate race — Ohio Capital Journal · Nonprofit state outlet in the States Newsroom network; progressive-leaning donor base
- Brown's offensive on data centers defines his Ohio Senate fight with Husted — The Washington Times · U.S. right; founded and long funded by the Unification Church movement
- Unearthed Memo Shines Light On GOP's Five-Alarm Fire In Ohio — The Daily Caller · U.S. right, conservative movement outlet
- Data Center Panic: Republicans Scramble to Join Backlash — TIME · U.S. center-left newsmagazine
- Commercial electricity use will likely surpass residential in 2027: EIA — Utility Dive · U.S. energy trade press, advertiser-supported; reports federal EIA data
- Understanding the Drivers of Rising Electricity Rates and the Role of Data Centers — Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) · Consultancy whose clients include utilities, developers and regulators — not a neutral academic source
- The Data Center Industry's PR Blitz Is Backfiring — Inside Climate News · Nonprofit environmental newsroom; explicitly climate-focused editorial mission
- Trump ignores GOP warnings, again leans into support for data centers — MS NOW (Opinion) · U.S. left, opinion-labeled commentary blog; rebranded from MSNBC in Nov. 2025 after the Versant Media Group spinoff from Comcast/NBCUniversal
- Ohio's U.S. Senate candidates recalibrate their stances on data centers — Statehouse News Bureau · Ohio public broadcasting statehouse bureau
- A growing political reckoning is coming for data centers, POLITICO Poll shows — E&E News · U.S. energy trade press; owned by POLITICO/Axel Springer, reporting on a POLITICO-commissioned poll