COLUMBUS, OHIO — Vivek Ramaswamy has unveiled his “Ohioans-First” Data Center Policy Pledge — a sweeping set of conditions that must be met before any data center is built in an Ohio community. The pledge is direct: if a data center comes to your community, residents will no longer pay for their home’s electricity, residents will pay lower property taxes, and the facility must abide by all air and water quality standards without exception, with Ohio’s fertile farmland protected. If any one of those three conditions isn’t met, the data center won’t be built. Period.
Ramaswamy says data center expansion has become the second-most common concern he hears from Ohioans across the state, trailing only property taxes. After traveling all 88 counties and listening to workers, farmers, union leaders, building trades, small business owners, environmental groups, and grassroots activists, he concluded that the right answer is neither unrestrained growth nor a permanent categorical ban. “I’m not pro-data center,” Ramaswamy argues. “I’m pro-Ohio.” He also hears from Ohio workers about the high-paying construction jobs the data center boom has produced — and says preserving that economic growth, capital investment, and jobs is a vital objective alongside protecting families from the costs and risks of unchecked expansion.
The concerns driving this pledge are concrete. Ohioans are dealing with rising electric bills, noise, pollution, and a lack of clearly defined economic benefits for their families. They’re asking why large corporations receive property tax abatements while ordinary homeowners don’t. With hundreds of data centers already operating across Ohio and construction accelerating, Ramaswamy argues the moment for a clear, enforceable framework is now.
Day One: An Executive Order
Ramaswamy has committed to signing an executive order on day one immediately halting approval of any new data center project announcements in Ohio until the full legislative framework takes effect. He will then work with the state legislature to codify the three core commitments into law, and looks forward to signing that legislation in early 2027.
Free Electricity for Residents: How It Works
The electricity commitment is built around what Ramaswamy calls a “benefit zone.” Data centers in Ohio are typically built alongside significant power generation — and the plan requires that excess power from that generation be credited directly to residential customers within a defined radius around the facility, as though those customers had a power purchase agreement with the plant, at no cost to them. Alternatively, data centers could directly reimburse residential customers in the benefit zone for their electric bills.
The mechanics are straightforward. Consider a data center built alongside a 1,000 megawatt natural gas or nuclear plant that consumes 700MW for its own operations. The remaining 300MW flows to the grid and is credited across residential customers in the benefit zone. Even 100MW of excess capacity would be enough to power 75,000 to 100,000 homes. Because most Ohio counties would fit entirely within a benefit zone, Ramaswamy argues that every resident of a county hosting a data center could pay nothing for electricity.
Ramaswamy contends that if Ohio’s governor sets this as a clear, non-negotiable requirement from the start and negotiates accordingly, hyperscalers would be willing to fully cover the cost of power for Ohioans near a data center. He frames it bluntly: executing on this requires “the acumen of a businessman, not a bureaucrat.”
Property Tax Relief: No Abatements, Real Rebates
On property taxes, the pledge is equally direct. Future data centers will be prohibited from receiving property tax abatements — they pay 100% of their property taxes, full stop. Those revenues are then used to fund direct property tax rebates for Ohio homeowners in the benefit zone. Ramaswamy emphasizes that this structure delivers real relief to homeowners without reducing funding for local police, schools, or firefighters — and notes it may become especially significant alongside an expected 2027 ballot initiative on eliminating property taxes entirely.
Environmental and Farmland Protections
No special exemptions on air or water quality standards — data centers must comply fully, without exception. On water, facilities will be required to minimize usage by recycling and reusing water with the best available technology, and any water released must be as clean as it was when it came in. On land, the pledge emphasizes siting data centers on vacant and former industrial sites — brownfields — rather than on Ohio’s fertile farmland.
On His Opponent
Ramaswamy draws a sharp contrast with his Democrat opponent, noting that she recently said data centers must not raise ratepayers’ electric bills — a position he says he advocated in early 2025, long before she began raising it. He calls that standard obvious but insufficient: “We can and must go further for Ohio families.”
The Bottom Line
Ramaswamy’s closing argument is a challenge to the conventional political approach to economic development. Ohio needs a governor willing to listen to all 88 counties and adopt thoughtful solutions that genuinely put Ohioans first — supporting economic growth and jobs for Ohio workers while eliminating electricity costs and reducing property taxes for homeowners, respecting all environmental laws, and preserving farmland. No data center will be built in Ohio under his watch without actualizing all three of these commitments.
