Husted, Brown split on data center incentives, Iran war powers and border enforcement

More than a million Ohioans have voted early in the final week before the election, with the U.S. Senate contest between Republican Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown turning on data centers, Iran and immigration.

Brown's campaign ad calls Husted "the face of data centers in Ohio" and claims Husted approved $2.5 billion in tax incentives for them. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimated that figure, covering state and local exemptions and incentives over seven years. Husted sponsored a bill to require data centers to pay their own utility costs, but Senate Democrats blocked it as toothless. Congress sets federal tax and energy policy, while state and local governments decide on data center rules.

At a rally in Massillon in August, Husted said: "Sherrod Brown celebrated data centers come into Ohio when he was a US senator, and now like the chameleon he is. He just flips and pretends he's for something else."

On Iran, Husted told reporters in Columbus in September: "I don't know anybody that doesn't want the war to end. But we need to make sure that when it does, that Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz and doesn't have a nuclear weapon." Husted voted against a Democrat-backed war powers resolution to end U.S. hostilities. Brown said Husted has voted 14 times against that resolution and procedural efforts to advance it, and told reporters in Chillicothe this month: "I think that sentiment is growing and growing and growing, and maybe some of my Republican colleagues will have some more backbone, but we're going to keep going. We're going to keep trying to end this war."

Immigration has divided them further. At the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas in September, Husted said: "What was going on there under Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown, Democrats gave us open borders and sanctuary cities and vote to give our tax dollars to illegal immigrants. That's what they did." Brown voted for the American Rescue Plan, which sent $1400 checks to eligible recipients and did not include undocumented immigrants. Brown has supported stricter border policies and opposed abolishing ICE, saying in an August interview: "You deport those who have committed those violent crimes, and then you adopt a immigration policy that works for our businesses, for our communities."

Brown told reporters in Dayton in September about ending temporary protected status for Haitians: "People that want to serve, that are contributing this country, you don't deport them. You deport people who have been dangerous criminals. It's pretty much as simple as that." Husted supported the Trump administration's July ending of TPS for Haitians. He said in July that around 30% of Haitians believe they have another pathway to stay and work in the U.S. The winner serves the remainder of the term vacated by Vice President JD Vance, who was elected to the seat in 2022 and would run again in 2028 to keep it.