Latest / Best of: Features / Trump rallies in Ohio to boost Jon Husted in a tight Senate race against Sherrod Brown

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Trump rallies in Ohio to boost Jon Husted in a tight Senate race against Sherrod Brown · Best of: Features

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  Trump defended data centers in Ohio as he rallies to boost John
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  Hustad in a tight Senate race. Written by Sung Min Kim, This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlett. Vandalia,
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  Ohio The AP. President Donald Trump on Saturday defended data centers that
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  power artificial intelligence projects but have become a contentious campaign issue nationwide,
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  as he took his midterm tour to Ohio to insist his party
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  will keep its majorities in Congress, despite steep political headwinds. Trump took
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  several minutes during his campaign rally in southwestern Ohio to promote his
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  administration's action on data centers, saying he was seeking to ensure they
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  benefit local communities and praising Republican Senator John Husted for an ill-fated
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  attempt to push forward legislation on The
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  issue. Look, there's so much money to be made for Ohio. You
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  can't just turn them off. They'll go to China, Trump said, repeating
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  his defense of data centers that he had made before. The crowd,
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  which had reacted enthusiastically as the President talked about other policies, was
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  far more muted during the data center's remark. The massive warehouse campuses
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  generating energy for AI projects have become a toxic political issue, drawing
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  bipartisan opposition in races across the country, with voters concerned about their
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  impact on electricity prices, farmland and water supplies. It's become especially acute
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  in Ohio, where Husted has been repeatedly attacked for his role in
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  attracting data centers to Ohio as lieutenant governor. Trump is embarking on
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  what he says will be a thirty two day blitz ahead of
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  the November third elections, hitting the deep red states of Texas, Oklahoma,
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  and Alabama this week before pivoting to Ohio, a battleground state that's
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  home to one of the top tier Senate races this cycle. Husted,
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  who was appointed to fill the Senate vacancy left by now, Vice
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  President J. D. Vance, is running to win the seat outright. There
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  is likely no path to a Senate majority for Democrats without flipping
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  Ohio, where former three term Senator Sherrod Brown is trying to return
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  to the Senate after losing to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago.
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  Since last year, Democrats have listed Ohio, along with states such as
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  North Carolina and Maine, as key races to win control of the
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  Senate, and this past week the head of the Senate GOP's campaign
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  arm said Ohio is among ten battleground races that are within striking
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  distance. The good news for us is that John Husted is a
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  closer, Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
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  told reporters. We're seeing the gap that was there between the two
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  candidates, which was just a few points, now it is right at
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  a dead even race. So this is as tight as ticks, as
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  we say in South Carolina. Data centers are a hot issue in
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  the Ohio race. At his rallies, Trump has been trying to convince
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  voters that the economy is better than they feel it is even
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  though polls show Americans are frustrated with the way he's handled it.
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  The high cost of living, including gas prices elevated by Trump's war
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  on Iran, is a top issue in the Dayton area too, and
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  just days before Trump's rally, nearly one thousand four hundred people were
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  laid off from a truck factory in nearby Springfield. Your state is
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  booming. Every I hate to say it. Every state is booming, Trump
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  insisted Saturday. They're all booming. Trump's rally comes as Republicans worry that
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  Husted's campaign has failed to adequately catch fire with voters in the
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  Republican dominated state. Brown and Allied groups have hammered Husted for this
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  data center's role, and them, NRSC has pinpointed it as a political
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  vulnerability. The GOP controlled Senate tried to advance legislation this past week
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  sponsored by Husted that would ask utility regulators to effectively charge large
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  power users more, as consumers struggle with high energy costs, but it
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  was blocked by nearly all Democrats. You got to remember Sharadart Brown
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  was for data centers and John Husted is for data centers being
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  responsible, Scott told reporters this week. If a community doesn't want them,
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  he doesn't want them either. But Trump has become one of Data
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  Center's most vocal proponents, shrugging aside voter concerns and arguing that the
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  US cannot cede advancements in AI to China. Senator John Husted gave
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  billions in tax breaks to big tech to make sure they would
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  build their data centers in Ohio, Brown wrote on X on Friday,
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  ahead of Trump's visit. Now he's making Ohioans foot the bill. Brown's
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  campaign also has hammered Husted for donations he's received from retail magnet
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  Leswexner, who once employed they late convicted sex offender Geoffrey Epstein. Husted
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  has donated remaining Wexner contributions to an anti human trafficking charity. There
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  were several Epstein themed signs outside the Vandalia School, where the rally
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  was being held, as more than a hundred protesters lined the road
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  with a slew of anti Trump and anti husted signs. But inside
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  the school's gymnasium, the boisterous crowd, decked out in red Make America
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  Great Again hats, and Trump Forty seven inches jerseys, greeted each Republican
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  candidate, enthusiastically as they awaited the President's arrival. From the stage, Husted
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  said the State had been through hard times, noting his dad had
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  worked at a factory that closed down, but he said Republicans in
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  the State had turned it around. We now have the most jobs
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  and the lowest unemployment rate we've ever had in the history of
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  Ohio, he said. Meanwhile, in the governor's race, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy faces
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  Democrat doctor Amy Acton, the state's former COVID era health director. A
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  wealthy biotech entrepreneur and twenty twenty four presidential candidate, Ramaswamy's star appeal
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  among conservatives led to quick backing by Ohio Republicans in hopes of
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  an easy victory in the Republican dominated state. However, despite a massive
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  fundraising lead and more than twelve million dollars spent in campaign advertising,
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  he is now locked in a close fight with Acton with weeks
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  to go until Election Day. I'm so grateful to this state and
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  to this country for giving a kid like me opportunities that would
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  not have been available to my family in any other country on
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  planet Earth, Ramaswamy said at the rally ahead of Trump's arrival, as
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  he underscored the American dream for his Indian immigrant family. The AP
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  Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington, and the AP writers Melissa Golden
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  in New York and Julie Carr Smith in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to
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  this report.