President Donald Trump on Saturday used a midterm campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, to defend the massive data centers powering America's artificial intelligence boom — stepping directly into one of the most politically toxic issues in the country's top-tier Senate race.
Speaking at Butler High School outside Dayton, Trump warned that rejecting the warehouse-sized campuses would hand an advantage to China. "There's so much money to be made for Ohio. You can't just turn them off. They'll go to China," he told the crowd.
The rally was staged to boost Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican running to win outright the seat he was appointed to fill after JD Vance left it for the vice presidency, and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Data centers have become especially acute in Ohio, where Husted has been repeatedly attacked for his role in attracting them as lieutenant governor.
The sprawling facilities that supply computing power for AI projects now draw bipartisan opposition across the country, with voters worried about their impact on electricity prices, farmland and water supplies. AP reporters noted an unusual moment in Vandalia: a crowd that cheered enthusiastically for Trump's other lines went conspicuously quiet during the data center remarks.
Trump praised Husted's "ill-fated attempt," as the AP put it, to push data center legislation through the Senate this week, and promised his administration was taking "historic action" to ensure data centers "benefit local communities." He tied the buildout directly to the U.S.-China AI race, saying America is ahead in what he repeatedly called "superintelligence."
"China doesn't want to see us" win, Trump said. "We're beating China."
Trump threw his weight behind Husted's Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill designed to stop data centers from raising household electricity costs and require the facilities to pay their own way on the grid. He claimed nearly every Senate Democrat voted days earlier to block the measure from advancing, and pledged he would sign it "into law immediately within 24 hours" if Republicans prevail in November.
Democrats hit back. Sherrod Brown — the former three-term senator trying to return after losing to Bernie Moreno two years ago — had his campaign spokesperson, Lauren Chou, tell Reuters that Husted backed "sweetheart tax deals" that lured data centers to Ohio: "Jon Husted puts corporations and billionaires first every time, and we all pay for it."
There is likely no path to a Senate majority for Democrats without flipping Ohio, making the Husted-Brown contest one of the cycle's defining races.
Trump framed the rally as part of what he called a 32-day midterm blitz, and repeatedly asked supporters to treat the November 3 election as a referendum on him — even though his name isn't on the ballot.
"Please pretend that I'm on the ballot, and you need to turn out for a midterm victory," he said. "We're going to win and we're going to win big."
He touted corporate investments as vindication of his tariff agenda: a $400 million Stellantis investment in Toledo, an $850 million Electra Aerospace project near Springfield, and Bayer's planned $2.2 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing campus near Columbus, which the company says will support roughly 600 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs. "Your state is booming," he said. "Every state is booming."
The headwinds are real, though. Ohio gasoline prices have risen 35% over the past year to an average of $4.16 per gallon, according to AAA. Trump won more than 55% of Ohio's vote in 2024, but economic frustration has weighed on his approval since. Whether his "pretend I'm running" plea can turn out enough voters for candidates like Husted and Ramaswamy — in a race where data centers, not Washington slogans, are on many voters' minds — will be decided on November 3.