Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown’s campaign against Republican Senator Jon Husted highlights a contradiction involving campaign contributions from Google while criticizing the tech giant’s data center expansion in Ohio.
Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown is intensifying his campaign against Republican Senator Jon Husted, focusing on the expansion of Ohio’s data center industry. A new campaign ad, released on September 4, features an Ohio resident blaming Husted for promoting the growth of data centers in the state, claiming their presence leads to “higher electric bills.” The ad prominently features a Google-owned facility that opened in Lancaster, Ohio, in 2023.
Campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal that Google’s corporate political action committee (PAC) has contributed $20,000 to Brown throughout his political career. Additionally, Brown has received significant donations from individuals who lobby for Google, including two lobbyists whose firms have worked on issues related to permitting, grid reliability, and energy affordability.
Mehek Cooke, a GOP strategist and attorney in Ohio, criticized Brown’s approach, stating, “Apparently Google is terrible enough to put in a campaign attack ad, but perfectly acceptable when the political contributions are coming in.” Cooke emphasized the contradiction in Brown’s stance, questioning why he accepts financial support from a company he publicly criticizes.
Among the contributors to Brown’s campaign are Google lobbyist Lisa Kountoupes, who donated $3,500 in March, and Michael D. Smith, another lobbyist who has contributed a total of $10,200 since 2017. These contributions were made to Brown’s principal campaign committee, Friends of Sherrod Brown. Kountoupes’s firm, Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, was hired by Google in December to lobby on issues related to permitting reform for the company’s data center needs. Smith’s firm, Cornerstone Government Affairs, has also reported lobbying for Google on similar issues.
In addition to these contributions, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records indicate that Brown has received a combined $6,000 over the past decade from three other Google lobbyists.
In response to the criticism, Lauren Chou, a spokeswoman for Brown’s campaign, highlighted the senator’s opposition to the expansion of data centers in Ohio, asserting that Husted “led the charge” in promoting their growth. However, Chou did not address the issue of Brown’s campaign contributions from Google.
Chou stated, “Husted is a ‘chief reason’ Ohio has 226 data centers and is ‘the face of data centers’ in Ohio.” She argued that Ohioans should not have to subsidize the costs associated with data centers and that the decision to build such facilities should rest with local communities, not with Husted and his wealthy associates.
Cooke further criticized Brown, suggesting that he is attempting to distance himself from his connections to Google while maintaining a populist image. “For nearly five decades, Brown has sold himself as the plaid-shirt, working-class populist,” Cooke said. “He lost in 2024, and now he is back running the same playbook: say one thing to Ohioans while his Washington record tells a very different story.”
Brown, who is seeking to return to the U.S. Senate in this high-stakes race against Husted, previously served in the Senate from 2006 until losing his reelection bid in 2024 to Republican Senator Bernie Moreno.
This is not the first time Brown’s campaign has faced scrutiny over conflicting positions. In 2015, he publicly celebrated the construction of an Amazon data center in central Ohio, calling it “great news for New Albany and central Ohio.” Despite this past praise, Brown has recently become a vocal critic of the increasing number of data centers in Ohio, a contentious issue in the state’s political landscape ahead of the midterm elections.
Former President Donald Trump has advocated for the expansion of data centers, warning that communities that resist such developments risk falling behind economically. Cooke remarked on the broader implications of the debate, stating, “America is in a global race for AI, computing capacity, and energy infrastructure. China is not slowing down because American politicians discovered that attacking data centers makes a convenient campaign commercial.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Husted’s campaign spokesperson, Amy Natoce, accused Brown of failing Ohio families during his lengthy tenure in Washington. She asserted that Brown is resorting to falsehoods rather than confronting his record directly. “The House overwhelmingly passed Sen. Husted’s bipartisan legislation requiring data center companies to pay for the power they use, but Senate Democrats blocked it,” she said. “Sherrod Brown and his friends would rather play politics and stick Ohio families with higher electric bills than pass a commonsense solution. It’s despicable.”
As the campaign unfolds, the tension surrounding Brown’s financial ties to Google and his public stance on data centers is likely to remain a focal point in the race for Ohio’s Senate seat, shaping the narrative as both candidates vie for voter support.
According to Fox News Digital.