Conserve Ohio pursues data center bans through local and statewide measures

Candidates offer competing approaches to hyperscale development in Ohio’s Senate race

This fall, Conserve Ohio is behind ballot initiatives in 10 communities that would amend local charters to prohibit the construction of large-scale data centers, including the kind used to power artificial intelligence. The proposals go beyond the temporary pauses embraced by hundreds of municipal and county governments. “All too often you hear from the politicians, ‘Well, the community should have a say,’” Owens said. “We’re going to find out in ten communities whether or not the communities want them.”

Conserve Ohio is also working on a petition for an amendment to the state constitution that would ban large-scale data centers statewide. The group’s goal is to put the proposal before Ohio voters in 2027.

In recent months, candidates for statewide office in Ohio have tried to show voters that they hear their concerns, even as they stop short of backing the sweeping moratorium data-center opponents seek. Until recently, data-center projects drew less controversy, in part because they were smaller and were not built for AI. As the issue gained traction, it became a prominent topic in the 2026 midterms, including the tight race for a U.S. Senate seat.

Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has cast his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted as “the face of data centers.” Brown has reminded voters that Husted welcomed tech companies to Ohio and championed data-center investments when he was lieutenant governor. Husted has accused Brown of hypocrisy, pointing to Brown’s past support for data centers.

Husted has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at making data centers pay for power-grid upgrades and other costs associated with their massive energy use. Senate Democrats blocked the bill, calling it toothless, and Husted accused them of not caring or helping.

Nick Owens, a lifelong Republican and self-described small-town attorney, has spent countless hours trying to determine what was planned for 1,000 acres of farmland and trees in Mt. Orab, a rural exurb of Cincinnati with 4,300 residents. Property records show that a data center developer bought the land in 2024 and 2025, and in a few places the property runs right up against two-story homes. Owens said nondisclosure agreements have stymied his efforts to learn more, leaving residents without basic information about the project.

“This is the Ohio that people brag about. This is the Ohio people love. This is the small town charm,” Owens said. “Living in the rural area, but getting the benefits of a nice, lovely neighborhood.” NPR reported: “Some of the most coordinated opposition to data centers anywhere in the country grew out of what happened in secrecy in this village of 4,300 people.” Owens crossed paths with another local attorney and a real estate agent who were equally alarmed. Together, they mobilized volunteers in nearly all 88 Ohio counties, bringing together Democrats, Republicans and Independents under the name Conserve Ohio. “We all share the same ethos and the same passion for preserving our way of life, preserving the future of Ohio, frankly, from the hyperscale data center invasion,” Owens said. “It’s really beautiful.”

More than a decade ago, tech companies first came to Ohio, attracted by the state’s inexpensive and abundant land, energy infrastructure and generous tax breaks. That combination paved the way for some of the fastest data-center growth in the country. The projects’ economic benefits include considerable tax revenue, money for schools, numerous construction jobs and a smaller number of permanent jobs. Despite those benefits, opposition has centered on secrecy and residents’ reluctance to host a computing campus nearby.

“Should the school have extra money or the local government have extra money so we have a constant hum and ridiculous amounts of emissions and pollution?” Owens said, pointing out that hyperscale data centers will require new power plants. “Our community is not for sale.” Owens said he would entertain locating data centers on old industrial sites, where they would be buffered from people. “If we’re going to have data centers, those are the prime places,” he said. He acknowledged that developing pristine farmland would be cheaper and easier than building on an old coal site. “I don’t know if there are enough brownfield sites, but shouldn’t we start with those first?”

Those political gestures have not persuaded Linda Moodie, an independent volunteer with Conserve Ohio. She does not trust that any candidate running for statewide office “will do the right thing” if elected; by her account, that would mean giving residents a say in the data-center buildout. “It’s really something that I think a lot of us didn’t see coming, and all of a sudden there’s just the influx of them,” she said.

Between now and election day, Moodie is seizing every opportunity to collect signatures for the statewide ban. On a recent evening, she set up a booth at the “Halloween on the Green” celebration in Fairfield, a Cincinnati suburb. She handed out candy to children and clipboards with the petition to parents, and both were enthusiastically received. “The closer it hits to home, the more people that are going to want to do something,” she said.

Two years ago, Owens served as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention. He will not say how he is voting this fall, but he said the data-center issue, along with $6 diesel, has dampened Republican enthusiasm. The absence of campaign yard signs is notable in Mt. Orab. “Two years ago you would have seen Donald Trump signs left and right,” Owens said. The county, like much of rural Ohio, voted 80% for President Trump in 2024. “You always have depressed votes in the midterms,” Owens said. “But I think the enthusiasm gap for Republicans in particularly rural areas is going to be a lot more pronounced… than any type of enthusiasm gap for Democrats in the cities.”

Owens also said President Donald Trump’s comments about data-center opponents were not helping. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.” Owens called the president’s statements “tone deaf.” “I mean, no one wants to be poor or backwards,” he said. “I want our regular way of life.”

Construction at the Mt. Orab site has not begun, and it is not clear when it will. Owens said nondisclosure agreements have left residents without information about the project. On a crisp fall day at the edge of the property, the area was nearly silent except for the birds.