How many missteps can Senate Democrats make, leading into the midterms? Well, that answer would seem to be "at least one more." On Wednesday, Senate Democrats, led by master outdoor chef and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), killed a bill that could have kept electricity rates reasonable for people living in areas where new data centers are going up. Democrats — with four dissenters - blocked the bill and, in so doing, gave at least one Senate Republican a shiny new talking point.
Democrats blocked a push to tackle one of the key issues driving this midterm election cycle, and may have given a vulnerable Republican a political lifeline in the process.
Republicans’ effort to crack down on rising electricity costs caused by the boom in data centers across the country was stifled on Wednesday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats, despite cruising through the House in a massive bipartisan vote.
Schumer’s blockade, however, wasn't unanimous among Democrats, with four — Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. — breaking ranks to support the bill.
I won't get into the merits of the act itself; the whole data-center issue is pretty new to know all of the implications of a law like this might be, save that one likely outcome would be to make the largest data centers go self-sufficient on energy; this would seem an application tailor-made for the new generation of small modular reactors (SMR), for one thing. No, instead, in this case it's the political implications, mostly with regard to the midterm elections, that are interesting.
The Ratepayer Protection Act, would have created a standard for AI companies and the data centers they run to bear the brunt of electricity costs — an issue that has become a predominant concern for voters this midterm cycle.
But Democrats argued it was a toothless effort that lacked any real enforcement mechanism, and merely a political ploy to give vulnerable Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, a boost.
"The Ratepayer Protection Act is a fraud. It does not require any protections at all," Schumer said. "While Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, Republicans are offering a toothless messaging bill."
We have long since learned that the more conviction Senator Schumer puts into his voice and demeanor, the more likely it is that he is full of Schiff. This case is no different; Schumer, whose tactical sense fossilized when woolly mammoths were still wandering the Canadian tundra, is just trying once more to deny Senate Republicans a win, a talking point that they can go home and brag about to voters.
Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) may well have had the most to gain from this bill's passing. In Ohio's ongoing special election, Senator Husted, who was appointed in 2024 to replace then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance, is not seeking reelection to a full term, and is currently running three points behind Democrat Sherrod Brown in the RealClear Polling average. That's far too tight in a mostly-red state like Ohio, and Brown has been hammering Husted on the issue.
Data centers have become a political cudgel against Husted in his race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has labeled him the "face of data centers" in a battle that could determine who wins the majority in November.
Husted argued that the bill passed the House with only three Democrats voting against it, and that this push didn’t need to be labeled a "partisan victory." Killing the bill, however, could give Husted a needed boost to campaign on, given that Democrats stopped one of the main issues voters have going into the election, particularly in Ohio.
Senator Husted may still have an uphill climb to close the gap, but he may well be within reach, and this Democrat misstep might help him. Still, he should do the same thing every Republican candidate is doing now, in these last few weeks: Run like you're 20 points behind, run like the election is in six minutes, push every button, shake every hand, sprint to the finish, and get out the votes. Every. Single. Vote.