A QPQ Tracker study · Ohio · 2023–2026
Ohio: who paid for the data centers and what the state decided
AEP’s federal PAC gave $257,274 to 55 Ohio committees, among them the House Republican Alliance and Senate President Rob McColley. Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle give nothing to Ohio state candidates in the Secretary of State’s record. Their employees do, in small amounts.
The same companies opposed AEP Ohio’s data center tariff at the Public Utilities Commission. The commission approved it on July 9, 2025 and denied rehearing in September. The companies lost the docket. The utility that paid the politicians won it.
Gov. DeWine signed HB 15 in May 2025 and on July 1 line-item vetoed the budget’s end of the data center sales-tax exemption. The exemption cost $1.6B in 2025, eleven times the state’s estimate. Four bills to repeal or cap it are pending.
Who paid
Each company's direct giving from its treasury and employee PAC, as filed in Ohio. Executives' personal cheques, super PAC spending and lobbying are different kinds of money and are not added here.
| Payer | Class | Direct giving in Ohio | Filings (every state the payer files in) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEP | Utility | $318,274 | 6 filer rows →
|
Who took it
The Ohio officeholders and candidates who received the most from the payer set, and what each did on the state's data center measures: the votes they cast, the bills they authored, the orders they signed. A yea is a vote for the measure as titled.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
No recorded vote or action on a tracked measure.
The 12 largest recipients of any kind, committees included
| # | Recipient | Kind | From the payer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MOVING CENTRAL OHIO FORWARD | PAC or committee | $50,000 |
| 2 | OHIO HOUSE REPUBLICAN ALLIANCE (OHRA) | PAC or committee | $34,000 |
| 3 | Rob McColley | person | $29,500 |
| 4 | OHIO HOUSE REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE (OHROC) | PAC or committee | $24,924 |
| 5 | Catherine Allison Russo | person | $20,000 |
| 6 | Shane Wilkin | person | $12,500 |
| 7 | William F Reineke | person | $12,500 |
| 8 | Bill Demora | person | $9,000 |
| 9 | Robert Cole Sprague | person | $7,500 |
| 10 | Frank Hoagland | person | $7,500 |
| 11 | Keith L Faber | person | $6,000 |
| 12 | Matt Huffman | person | $6,000 |
What they decided
Every Ohio bill, regulator's order, executive action and election the study tracks, with its result, its recorded vote and the people and companies on the record for it. Each links to the official document.
Ohio8 measures
- BillIntroducedJul 13, 2026Cindy Abrams advocated for; Phil Plummer advocated for
- BillPendingJun 10, 2026Kellie Deeter (Ohio) advocated for; Gary Click advocated for
- Executive actionEnactedMay 27, 2026Mike DeWine issued
- BillIntroducedMar 11, 2026Kent Smith (Ohio) advocated for; Louis Blessing advocated for
- BillIntroducedFeb 17, 2026Tristan Rader advocated for
- Regulator's orderUnder appealJul 9, 2025
- BillVetoedJul 1, 2025Mike DeWine shaped
- BillEnactedMay 15, 2025Roy Klopfenstein advocated for; Mike DeWine shaped
How to read this page
The money is corporate-treasury and employee-PAC giving reported in Ohio’s own filing system, the Secretary of State campaign finance search, from January 2023 to the latest filing loaded (98 contributions, January 2023 to July 2026). Transfers between a politician’s own committees, conduit memo lines and gifts from the opposing side are left out. Executives’ personal cheques, super PAC spending, 527 transfers and lobbying are different kinds of money. The report keeps them apart, and the written part of this page names them as such. Nothing on this page adds across kinds.
The votes are the legislature’s own roll calls, loaded for the members the study follows. A yea is a vote for the measure as titled. The measures are the bills, commission orders, executive actions and elections the study identified; each links to its official record.
Every payer total was reconciled against the payer’s own reports where the state publishes them. The checks are in the report’s verification log. Figures on this page were last recomputed on October 31, 2026. Correlation is not proof of causation; the record shows what was paid and what was decided.