Ohio Governor’s Race Tightens as Data Centers Become Major Campaign Issue

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s race for governor has developed into a closely contested election, with recent polling showing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton separated by only a few percentage points as data center development becomes an increasingly prominent campaign issue.

The latest polling shows neither candidate with a clear advantage.

A New York Times and Siena College poll fielded from June 15 through June 28 found Acton and Ramaswamy tied at 47 percent among likely Ohio voters. Six percent supported another candidate or were undecided. The poll surveyed 601 likely voters and had a margin of error of approximately 5 percentage points. An AARP poll conducted June 14 through June 16 and released June 25 found Acton at 47 percent and Ramaswamy at 44 percent among 800 likely voters. Nine percent supported another candidate or were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Among voters age 50 and older in the AARP survey, Ramaswamy led Acton 51 percent to 41 percent.

A Fox News poll conducted May 28 through June 1 found Acton at 50 percent and Ramaswamy at 49 percent among 1,015 registered Ohio voters. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

That poll also showed that support for both candidates remained somewhat fluid. Thirty percent of Acton supporters said they might change their minds before the election. Thirty percent of Ramaswamy supporters said the same.

The current 270toWin average of those three qualifying polls places Acton at 48.0 percent and Ramaswamy at 46.7 percent, a difference of 1.3 percentage points.

Because the individual polls remain within their respective margins of error, the numbers do not establish a clear leader. They instead indicate that the governor’s race remains highly competitive. The closeness of the contest is notable in a state that has moved strongly toward Republicans in recent statewide elections. Donald Trump won Ohio in the 2024 presidential election with 55.14 percent of the vote compared with 43.93 percent for Kamala Harris, a Republican advantage of more than 11 percentage points. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine won reelection in 2022 with approximately 62.4 percent of the vote compared with 37.4 percent for Democrat Nan Whaley.

The Cook Political Report moved the 2026 Ohio governor’s race from Lean Republican to Toss Up on July 10, reflecting the increasingly competitive nature of the contest. One of the issues moving rapidly to the center of the campaign is data center development.

Ramaswamy announced his “Ohioans First Data Center Pledge” on Aug. 6, proposing new requirements for future data center projects in Ohio. Under his proposal, data centers would be required to provide free electricity or equivalent compensation to nearby residents, pay full property taxes without abatements and meet stricter environmental and farmland protections.

His plan also calls for minimizing and recycling water use and prioritizing development on brownfield and industrial sites rather than agricultural land. Ramaswamy has said that projects failing to meet any of those requirements would not be allowed to proceed.

He also said he would issue an executive order on his first day as governor halting approval of new data center project announcements until legislation establishing the new requirements takes effect.

Acton announced her own conditional moratorium on data centers July 27. Her proposal would require data centers to pay 100 percent of their utility costs, use union labor for construction, comply with Ohio environmental standards, operate with greater transparency and enter arrangements designed to provide benefits to surrounding communities. Acton has also said projects should prioritize redevelopment of former industrial areas and provide meaningful employment opportunities. Projects that fail to meet those conditions would not be supported under her proposal.

The increasingly restrictive positions from both candidates come as polling shows significant public concern about data centers. The Fox News poll conducted from May 28 through June 1 asked Ohio voters whether they would favor or oppose construction of a data center in their area to support artificial intelligence technology.

Sixty five percent said they opposed such a project.

Thirty two percent said they supported one.

Among respondents, 41 percent said they strongly opposed a data center being built in their area, while 24 percent somewhat opposed one. Only 9 percent strongly supported a nearby data center, while 23 percent somewhat supported one.

Three percent said they did not know.

The debate is taking place as Ohio experiences billions of dollars in new data center investment and growing scrutiny of the tax incentives used to attract those projects.

Gov. Mike DeWine announced May 27 that Ohio would pause consideration of new data center tax exemption requests while lawmakers evaluate the program and the industry’s growing impact on the state.

Projects already scheduled for consideration remained in the pipeline around the time of the announcement. Ohio had previously projected that its data center sales tax exemption would result in approximately $136 million in foregone state tax revenue during fiscal year 2025.

The actual amount was reported at nearly $1.6 billion. For fiscal year 2024, the exemption resulted in approximately $554 million in foregone revenue.

At the same time, the DeWine administration has said data center related investment in Ohio during 2024 and 2025 totaled approximately $37 billion. Those numbers illustrate the competing economic arguments surrounding the industry. Supporters point to billions of dollars in private investment, construction activity and expansion of Ohio’s technology infrastructure.

Critics have raised concerns about electricity demand, water use, farmland conversion, local tax abatements and whether communities receive enough long term economic benefit from facilities that can consume large amounts of power while employing relatively few permanent workers compared with traditional industrial operations. Those concerns appear to be reaching voters. Nearly two thirds of Ohio respondents in the Fox News survey opposed having a data center constructed in their own area.

That political pressure has helped transform what had largely been a series of local zoning and development disputes into a statewide campaign issue. Ramaswamy continues to hold a significant financial advantage in the race. VPAC, a super PAC supporting his candidacy, announced a $25 million summer advertising campaign beginning in June.

But the polling so far suggests that financial advantage has not translated into a decisive lead.

The three most recent surveys included in 270toWin’s current average have produced a tie, a three point Acton advantage and a one point Acton advantage.

With Ohio voters scheduled to choose their next governor on Nov. 3, the election is increasingly shaping up as a contest not only over traditional issues such as taxes, health care and economic development, but also over how Ohio should manage one of the fastest growing industries in the state. The debate over data centers may ultimately give voters a direct choice over whether Ohio should continue aggressively courting the industry and, if it does, what companies should be required to provide to the communities where they build.