President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada is taking center stage in Michigan, where Democrats are campaigning aggressively on their opponents’ support for the president’s tariffs.
In the weeks since trade negotiations broke down with Canada, Democrats such as Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed
have tied the trade war and the higher tariffs it has created to their broader focus on voters' cost of living concerns.“By the time you’ve paid for your tank of gas and your groceries for the week, you’re looking at your budget and saying, ‘Where did all my money go?’” El-Sayed said in an interview with USA TODAY. “And it turns out it went to pay for tariffs, too often, that you shouldn’t have to be paying.”
Michigan Democrats have been railing against
the president’s trade policies for months, but the latest feud with Canada has given new urgency to the issue in a key swing state, where Democrats hope to hold onto the governorship and a Senate seat, and defeat Republicans in three competitive U.S. House races.
Opposition to the tariffs has also given Democrats a message to unify around after a bitter Aug. 4 primary contest between El-Sayed, a progressive, and his moderate opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens.
Michigan has deep economic ties to America's northern neighbor. The state is home to two of the largest commercial border crossings between the United States and Canada, including the Detroit-Windsor corridor, where the new Gordie Howe International Bridge opened this summer. In 2025, Michigan exported $23.2 billion in goods to Canada, its largest international trading partner, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
The ongoing trade dispute poses risks to the state's automotive industry, which depends on parts passing back and forth between the two countries, and has led to a sharp decline in Canadian visits to the United States, harming the retail and tourism industries.
Last month, trade negotiations between the United States and Canada fell apart and the United States imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canada has implemented its own dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs, with levies ranging from 15% to 50%, which went into effect Sept. 8. The president also threatened to place a 50% tariff on Canadian cars, trucks, automotive parts and steel next year, claiming that Canada has been “ripping off the United States” for years.
“Anybody that I've talked to would tell you that this trade war with Canada makes no sense,” Christina Hines, the Democratic nominee in Michigan's 10th Congressional District, told USA TODAY. “We know that this is crazy, but this is all just retaliatory and a bunch of politicians that are falling in line with the president making terrible decisions.”
Michigan businesses and consumers are already feeling the impact of Trump's global tariffs, which have included levies on imported autos and auto parts, steel, aluminum and copper. A recent report from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, an anti-tax advocacy group, and prepared by research firm Trade Partnership Worldwide, found that Michigan households have paid an additional $5,619 in tariffs between January 2025 and June 2026, the highest per-household rate of any state.
A June EPIC-MRA poll commissioned by the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance, which includes retail and agriculture associations and state and local chambers of commerce, found that 48% of Michigan voters opposed tariffs, compared to 43% who supported them. Asked about tariffs on manufacturing and auto parts imported from Canada, specifically, 63% of voters said they were opposed.
“It’s very unpopular, and the blowback to the higher costs and the escalating trade war is growing by the day,” said Mark Fisk, a spokesperson for the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance. “And rather than a rational policy discussion, this is now going to become an unavoidable election year issue.”
A balancing act for Republicans
The trade dispute has forced Michigan Republicans to navigate their loyalty to the president, their state’s close relationship with Canada, and voters' concerns about tariffs and how free trade agreements have affected Michigan’s manufacturing industries.
“I recognize how important and crucial our partnership with our friends and family in Canada is,” Rep. John James, Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” in August. “But I also recognize how crucial it is that the status quo not continue.”
James said the negotiators need to “stop acting like children” and return to the table to reach a “fair, mutually beneficial, reciprocal deal.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for governor, has criticized James for voting against a February resolution to block the president’s tariffs on Canada.
“I call it the 'John James tax' because folks, Michiganders, sent him to Washington to stand up for them,” Benson told USA TODAY. “When he had the opportunity to even do something as little as vote against Trump’s power to extend or put these tariffs in place, he supported them, he supported these tariffs.”
James' campaign said in a statement that Benson was part of the "leadership that has led Michigan into the ground."
Mike Rogers, a former seven-term congressman from Michigan and the Republican nominee for Senate, defended the president's tariffs as "necessary" in a statement, but added that they aren't "a one-size-fits-all solution."
“Michigan deserves a Senator who will work with President Trump to broker a trade deal with Canada that supports our farmers and gets the best deal for Michigan autoworkers and manufacturers," he said.
El-Sayed has called Rogers a rubber stamp for the president, and criticized him over his past support for U.S. trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the predecessor to the current deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Rogers has also backed the Reciprocal Trade Act, a proposed bill that would give the president power to unilaterally impose tariffs to match those of other countries.
“If you have a tariff on a product, we should be able to match that product,” Rogers told the Washington Examiner. “That would be my preferred way to do it, and I think that is wholly appropriate.”
El-Sayed and other Democrats have argued for a more targeted approach to trade policy. The Senate candidate, a medical doctor by training, compared using tariffs to protect the U.S. economy to treating cancer with chemotherapy.
"If you treat your patient with all the chemo all at once, you'll kill your patient," he said. "But if you dose the chemo appropriately, with a very particular target, then you can kill the tumor and cure your patient."
Both the gubernatorial and Senate races are expected to be close. An EPIC-MRA poll released Aug. 29 found that 45% of those polled would back Benson and 41% supported James in the governor’s race, with 14% undecided. In the Senate race, 47% backed El-Sayed and 43% supported Rogers, with 10% undecided.
Voters' views on Canada are less divided.
Bill Burns, a 54-year-old from Ferndale who works in sales, said the trade war with Canada – as well as Trump renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” – had further soured him on the administration.
“Everything we’ve done over time to create relationships and build partnerships gets thrown away,” said Burns, a Democrat who has voted for Republicans in the past. “It’s very disappointing to see that.”
Matt Gaus, a 34-year-old data consultant from Grosse Pointe, said Republicans were likely to shoulder the brunt of voters’ frustrations on tariffs come November.
“If they’re silent on it or if they agree with Trump, then people might hold them accountable for that,” he said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: El Sayed, Michigan Democrats run against tariffs, Canada trade war
