Canada trade war jeopardizing key Senate battleground states for GOP, experts claim
The trade war with Canada is hurting Republicans in critical battleground states and risks throwing the Senate to Democrats, trade and political experts told The Post.But the White House says the president has a “mandate” to keep the pressure on, even as polls in Michigan, Ohio and Maine point to angry voters already worried about high prices.“One has to ask the US administration if they are trying to lose the midterms,” fumed Andrew Hale, a trade expert at the former Vice President Mike Pence-affiliated Advancing American Freedom group.Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47, and Democrats need to flip just four seats Nov.
3 to take the majority.Canada is America’s No.2 trading partner, and the retaliatory tariffs are inflicting the most pain in states with close economic ties to their northern neighbor — several of which happen to be most in play for deciding Senate control.Michigan alone, which features a premiere contest between lefty anti-Israel public health expert Dr.
Abdul El-Sayed and former Rep.Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), has $30 billion in exports to Canada.
The state’s auto industry is closely intertwined with the Canadian supply chain, in an arrangement dating back to the Cold War.El-Sayed holds a 2-percentage point lead in the RealClearPolitics average.In Ohio, where former Sen.
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has opened up a narrow lead over Sen.John Husted (R-Ohio), has $17.5 billion in exports to the Great White North.
He has already been running ads on the rising price of fertilizer and other inflationary effects on farmers.Both states feature heavily in cross-border auto industry, with parts criss-crossing the border multiple times.In 2025, the US exported $30 billion in auto parts to Canada, and imported $20 billion, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
In Maine, which has about $6 billion in annual trade with Canada, Sen.Susan Collins (R-ME) is trying to hang on to a seat she has held for 29 years against a challenge by...