Jon Husted Corruption & Ethics Data Centers & AI Ohio

Jon Husted Rents His D.C. Apartment From a Lobbyist for Meta. Neither of Them Will Say How Much He Pays.

Ohio's senator lives in a Washington house owned by David Lugar, a lobbyist whose clients include Meta — the company building what Politico calls the world's largest data center in Ohio. Husted's office says the rent is 'fair market.' It won't say what the rent is.

MAGA Report Cards · Nov 01, 2026

When Jon Husted is in Washington, he sleeps in a house owned by a corporate lobbyist. One of that lobbyist's clients is Meta — the company building what Politico calls the world's largest data center in Ohio, in a Senate race where data centers have become a major issue.

Politico reported the arrangement on October 30. Husted rents an apartment in a multi-family house owned by David Lugar, a veteran lobbyist who co-chairs the firm 535 Group and chairs The Lugar Group. Lugar's clients include Fortune 100 companies Meta, Boeing and Wells Fargo. Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young rents a separate unit in the same building.

Both Lugar and Husted's office say Husted pays fair market rent. Politico asked how much that is. Lugar didn't answer. Husted's spokespeople didn't answer either.

"Fair market" is a claim, not a number

There's no rule against a senator renting from a lobbyist, Politico notes — as long as the rent is a fair market rate. That's the whole test. And the one fact that would let anyone check it is the one fact nobody will hand over.

Husted's spokesperson called it "strictly a landlord and tenant relationship." Lugar told Politico he has never lobbied Husted or his staff. He also told Politico that he has lobbied the office of his other Senate tenant, Todd Young, while Young has been living there — though he wouldn't say for which clients.

So the landlord's own account is that renting to a senator and lobbying that senator's office can happen at the same time. We're asked to take his word that in Husted's case, it doesn't.

Lugar's work for Meta isn't a guess. A federal lobbying filing dated April 20, 2026, lists Meta as a 535 Group client, names Lugar as a lobbyist on the account, and lists the U.S. Senate among the places the firm lobbied, TiffinOhio.net found. Meta paid the firm $30,000 for the first three months of this year alone. The filing doesn't name Husted's office as a target.

Why Meta matters in Ohio

Data centers are not a side issue in Ohio this year. They're a central fight in the Senate race, and Husted helped start it.

As lieutenant governor, a job he held until 2025, Husted helped put Ohio's data center tax breaks in place, Politico reports. Those breaks blew past the state's estimate. Ohio's data center sales tax exemption was projected to cost about $136 million — and it ended up costing the state about $1.57 billion in 2025, more than 11 times the forecast, TiffinOhio.net reported, citing the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

Meta is one of the biggest players in that boom. It is building its Prometheus AI computing complex in New Albany, and has signed deals to buy power from the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, according to TiffinOhio.net.

Husted's own party knows this is a problem for him. A leaked National Republican Senatorial Committee memo called data centers an "anchor" around his campaign. His answer was the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill meant to make tech companies cover the cost of the power lines and plants their data centers need. It went nowhere — Politico says he "unsuccessfully pushed" it.

Meanwhile, his campaign kept taking the industry's money. We found $69,750 from the tech and utility companies at the center of Ohio's data center fight.

A pattern of lobbyists close to the senator

This isn't the first time Husted has had a lobbying problem close to home. Earlier this year his senior adviser was found to be on a Columbus lobbying firm's payroll while working in the senator's office — and a formal ethics complaint now names Husted himself.

Now it's his landlord.

Members of Congress have drawn attention for this before. Politico points to John Boehner, who rented his D.C. apartment from a lobbyist in 2006, and to Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan, who, Politico notes, the Detroit News revealed in October rented a D.C. house owned by one of his major donors.

The easy fix he won't make

There's a simple way to end this. Husted could release his lease. If he's paying what anyone else would pay, the number proves it, and the story goes away.

He hasn't. Neither has his landlord. With Ohio voting on Tuesday, the senator who says tech companies should pay their own way is declining to say what he pays one of their lobbyists.

The facts, in short

Senator Jon Husted rents a Washington apartment from David Lugar, a lobbyist whose clients include Meta, the company building a massive AI data center in Ohio. Both say the rent is fair market; neither would tell Politico what it is. Husted helped create Ohio's data center tax breaks as lieutenant governor — breaks that cost the state about $1.57 billion in 2025, more than 11 times the projection.