This week, Axios obtained a memo written by the National Republican Senatorial Committee that talks about the party’s struggle in Ohio as the Democrats use AI data centers against the Republican candidate. At first glance, it’s a straightforward warning that data center construction could make Republicans who support them vulnerable to attack. But if you read between the lines, there’s a more interesting dynamic at play.
The GOP seems to be signalling that AI companies need to start spending big money to clean up their image and support Republicans if they want any chance at winning the PR battle over data centers. The memo discusses the campaign attacks by Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown against Republican candidate Jon Husted in Ohio.
“Brown has put three unique television ads on the air and spent millions doing it, to the tune of more than 6,000 points on television. This is more than a month’s worth of messaging during one of the most critical times in the race,” the memo reads. “Our polling indicates that this messaging is significantly more effective than traditional messaging tracts, as it introduces new information on a highly relevant, emerging topic. This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”
Katie Harbath, who formerly worked at the NRSC, wrote a Substack post explaining what’s happening here. And it seems to be a message for AI companies and outside political groups to start spending huge sums. Harbath writes that she’s never seen anything like it:
The clearest sign that this memo is a bat signal to outside groups is in Axios’s follow-up this morning. A Republican operative, unprompted, told Axios that party groups have spent months raising money from these same tech companies while sitting on resources that could help candidates weather the attacks — and asked, bluntly, what the orgs were waiting for.
The backlash against data centers has been ruthless and bipartisan. Recent polling from Gallup has shown that only 27% of Americans support the construction of AI data centers in their communities. The same poll shows that more Americans would be in favor of a nuclear power plant being built near them than a data center.
When you couple this memo with new reporting from Wired about Elon Musk’s political spending, the panic makes even more sense. The billionaire is reportedly planning to spend about $200 million on the midterms, up from reports in July that he’d spend at least $100 million. Musk is heavily invested in the future of AI data centers as a tech oligarch. And while he clearly has an ideological project that goes far beyond AI (this is the guy who turned Grok into MechaHitler, after all), it’s in his business interests to flip the script when it comes to public perception of data centers.
American companies have spent a record $517 million on midterms, according to Reuters, fueled by AI, crypto, and other Big Tech players. Leading the Future, one of the most influential AI-affiliated PACs, has raised at least $140 million. And Anthropic has donated $40 million to a nonprofit called Public First Action, which reportedly has a war chest of $100 million. And that’s just what we know about so far.
President Donald Trump has been doing his part to help, at least in the small ways that he can. Trump insisted this week that politicians across the country should embrace data centers.
“I would say that maybe it can use a little public relations help,” Trump said Wednesday. “But if I were a governor or mayor, I would want that plant in my community.”
Will the people promoting data centers succeed? That remains to be seen. But if you throw enough money at a problem, it can help shape public opinion. One sticking point is that the people delivering the message simply aren’t popular. Trump recently recorded his lowest approval rating ever at just 33% according to Reuters. And Musk is also not a very popular guy, given his history of racism and fascism.
There’s also the Wisconsin problem. Musk and his affiliated super PACs spent around $20 million in 2025 trying to get a right-wing judge elected in the state. He even offered $1 million checks to voters in a gallingly illegal move. But his candidate still lost. It remains to be seen whether his hundreds of millions can turn the tide.
As for Ohio, the Democrat Sherrod Brown is currently leading his Republican opponent by 10 points among people who say they’re definitely going to vote this November, according to Fox News.
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