Summary
Updated: July 17, 2026
With Ohio families paying higher and higher utility bills, Derek Merrin is part of the problem. Merrin voted for the billion-dollar taxpayer-funded bailout for First Energy, voted to let First Energy raise rates on Ohio families and small businesses, and Merrin voted to give more taxpayer funds to the data centers driving rates up even higher.
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Merrin took over twenty thousand dollars of campaign cash from FirstEnergy’s backers including a corrupt politician in prison for the FirstEnergy bribery scandal.
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Merrin also voted for the corrupt $1.3 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of FirstEnergy that lined their pockets, and he voted to allow FirstEnergy to keep raising rates on consumers even after the bailout.
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Merrin voted to expand the data center tax break that has cost Ohio taxpayers over $2 billion so far – putting Ohio taxpayers on the hook to build even more data centers. These data centers consume massive amounts of electricity, pushing energy costs higher for families and small businesses and drain local water supplies that farms and homes depend on.
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