• by Wayne Friedman , 6 hours ago

In the midst of a strong midterm political election season, television advertising for the current midterm elections is increasingly focused on the data-center industry, according to new research from AdImpact.

To date, there have been 15,000 airings totaling $7.6 million related to data centers. In July alone, research tracked 5,100 of these ads across political advertisers (candidates and political groups), with August rising to 7,100 and 31 advertisers.Democrat candidates have been ramping up their spending on negative messaging targeting their Republican competitors during election cycles.

Democrats account for 73% of the estimated spend, with Republicans at 26%. Many of these political ads criticize data-center construction.

An AdImpact report says: “Most of these ads either attack data centers directly or link opponents to their development, often tying their support to rising energy costs or environmental concerns.

One of the biggest efforts is from Ohio Democrat Senate candidate Sherrod Brown -- a former Ohio Senator -- who has spent $2.4 million so far in advertising against his Republican competitor, Senator Jon Husted.

AdImpact says the political action group ad Believe in Wisconsin has spent $926,000 on messaging that is critical of data centers.

There is also one positive political ad from the Infrastructure Alliance of Texas that links positive gains of data centers in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican.

At the same time, Texas Democrat candidate Gina Hinojosa has been spending big on attacking Abbott for his data-center support.

One ad from Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) against the former state Rep. Dan Merrin, had this message:

"Merrin signed off on $2B more for data centers, and their massive usage is driving rates up even more...I oppose that dirty bailout, and I'll never give tax breaks for data centers."

Kaptur defeated Merrin in 2024. Since then, Ohio has been in the midst of a major redistribution push.