Fifty-five days before Ohioans go to the polls to elect their next governor, two Northeast Ohio leaders voiced their concerns about how data center growth may look like in the next administration.
State Rep. Tristan Rader and Ward 15 Cleveland Councilman Charles Slife stood in front of a substation in front of the IX Center on Wednesday morning to remind voters that this year’s political choice could affect where and how hyperscale data centers are built statewide in 2027.
Last month, gubernatorial candidates Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy introduced or refined their stances on how such centers would be built under their administrations. In the past year or so, Ramaswamy, a Republican, has been more widely criticized by leftist groups for what seems to be a more open stance on data centers than Acton.
A belief both Rader and Slife weren’t shy about on Wednesday, when their comments veered often into warning Ohioans about Ramaswamy rather than praising Acton. Financial disclosures from May show Ramaswamy has potentially meaty investments in Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Bitcoin.
“He’s making money every time one of these data centers do up in your backyard,” Rader said from a podium. “To me, that’s a huge concern.”
“If he’s the governor, what’s he going to do?” he added. “Is he going to help make himself money, or is he actually going to represent you as governor?”
Slife and Rader’s comments aren’t entirely out of left field. Since re-election in 2024, the Trump family has made more than $1.2 billion from their cryptocurrency investments, a data tracker shows, profits that have gained concern from House Democrats.
A similar worry Rader and Slife have about Ramaswamy: that the entrepreneur may have his own interest in padding his pages of investments via Ohio’s data center boom. It’s why a member from Innovation Ohio, a progressive activist group based in Columbus, was there for support.
And also to espouse their own ideas to regulate such centers. In Cleveland’s case, Slife proposed to update the city’s zoning code to prevent any smart workarounds in future proposals. The city’s temporary ban on data center proposals, issued months after one failed in Slavic Village, lifts in mid-October.
“We need to make sure that cities can catch up,” Slife said. “We need to make sure our zoning codes reflect reality in 2026. Not, in many cases, 1926.”
Cleveland has several data centers already, a recent Signal report showed, that operate quietly in nondescript buildings, mostly in the city center.
Yet, besides that failed Slavic Village proposal, and two in Youngstown and one in Canton, Cleveland is not ground zero for Ohio’s data center boom. The Columbus area alone has hundreds planned and recently built.
For Rader, who sits on the state Power Siting Board, the concern is mainly about electricity. A report earlier this month showed that BlackRock, the asset manager that bought Minnesota Power, showed interest in buying Ohio utility companies, as well.
A huge conflict of interest in Rader’s mind: private equity owning both the data center and the power company that fuels it. Meaning, just like has been shown already, higher electricity bills for Ohioans on the same grid.
“Make no mistake,” Rader said, “that is because of data center growth in the state of Ohio.”
As of early August, both candidates have pledged to highly regulate incoming proposals if they take office, from refusing to subsidize data center utility costs, to making new ones build on brownfield land, or ensuring such centers don’t poison local water supplies.
On August 6, as a response to the left’s criticism, Ramaswamy published a pledge that tightened his stance: make centers pay full property taxes; make sure nearby Ohioans receive free electricity; and, like Acton, only okay new builds on previously industrial spots to, he said, “protect Ohio’s fertile farmland.”
“If a project fails to meet any one of these three requirements, it will not be built,” he wrote. “Period.”
But do new data centers, especially the dozens planned for the east side of Columbus, mean perks to whomever takes the governor’s seat?
According to finance reports, both Acton and Ramaswamy have investments, as of last year, in Microsoft and Meta. Ramaswamy’s portfolio is more tech-heavy, with investments in Dell, Apple, Prologis, Strive and untold amounts in Bitcoin and Ethereum. In theory, both could see returns if Ohio’s data boom continues.
That is, of course, if the Statehouse chooses to let it.
“This is not a political issue,” Rader said. “This is something that I think affects rural Ohio even more so than urban Ohio.”
“So, this is not something that should be partisan,” he added.
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