Catching Our Eye News Roundup, July 13, 2026

Every morning in the Ohio Capital Journal’s free newsletter, The Eye-Opener, we round up the news and commentary from across Ohio and around the country and world that is catching our attention. We call this feature Catching Our Eye, republished here.

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Catching Our Eye

• Data centers. Signal Ohio’s Andrew Tobias reports, “‘He’s trying to win this election’: Sherrod Brown attacks Jon Husted’s support of data centers.”

Sherrod Brown has made going after data centers a more prominent part of his campaign for the U.S. Senate, putting the influential, pro-union Democrat notably at odds with some members of his party as well as one of the state’s largest organized labor groups.

Brown released an ad this week attacking Republican Sen. Jon Husted, his opponent in the November election, as “the face of data centers in Ohio.” The ad says Husted “cut sweetheart tax deals” and fast-tracked approvals “while ordinary residents watched their electricity bills explode.”

• Populism versus ‘Do what we want.’ Cleveland.com’s Laura Hancock reports, “Populism issues forcing Ohio GOP to abandon their ‘do what we want’ approach before election: 5 takeaways.”

The political landscape in Ohio is shifting as populist issues begin to bridge long-standing partisan divides, forcing the Republican-controlled Statehouse to address voter concerns they previously sidelined.

From surging property taxes to the rapid expansion of data centers and private school vouchers, these developments are creating new pressures on leadership ahead of the upcoming November election.