Trump’s tariffs loom over Maine Senate race between Collins, Jackson

PORTLAND, Maine — The same week President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on imported steel, the domestic supplier of the wire mesh Mark Brooks uses to make lobster traps in Maine hiked prices by 20%.

When diesel prices began rising as the U.S. war with Iran escalated, Brooks started paying freight surcharges on his materials and saw sales slow as lobstermen tightened their belts. And when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney slapped 50% tariffs on U.S. lobster traps in September as retaliation for Trump’s own duties on Canadian goods, the roughly $2 million in annual shipments Brooks typically sends over the northern border dried up virtually overnight.

“It’s basically the worst business climate for us that I’ve ever seen in 40 years,” said Brooks, a third-generation lobster-trap manufacturer and supplier, who along with his siblings runs Brooks Trap Mill and its seven locations across Maine. “We’ve eaten as much cost as we can to try to keep our prices down, but we just can’t eat any more than we have already.”

Few states have been as vulnerable in the U.S.-Canada trade war as Maine, which sends more than 40% of its exports to the U.S.’s northern neighbor. Those challenges are also piling on top of cost-of-living issues that were already spiraling, especially relating to things like home heating oil, on which Maine depends more than any other state. As a result, tariffs specifically — and affordability concerns more broadly — are center stage in this year’s “toss up” Senate race between GOP incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson, a former president of the Maine Senate.

Polls show the economy is at the top of the list of voters’ concerns this election, in Maine and nationwide. More than 90% of respondents in a Suffolk University poll this month of likely Maine voters rated the state’s economy as “fair” or “poor,” while a majority said the state is on the wrong track and 57% gave Trump an unfavorable rating.

The key question here is whether that dissatisfaction will translate into votes against Collins, or whether she will be able to separate herself from an unpopular piece of Trump’s and the Republican Party’s agenda. 

“That’s one of the big issues in this campaign: How independent is Susan Collins from Donald Trump?” said Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. 

Across the country, Republican candidates in competitive seats have been working to find ways to distance themselves from the White House. 

In Michigan, GOP candidate Mike Rogers has criticized the Canada tariffs and called for a quick end to the Iran war. In Iowa, Ashley Hinson, a Republican running for Senate, came out against Trump’s decision to temporarily lower tariffs on imported ground beef, which she said would hurt U.S. cattle ranchers. And GOP Senate hopefuls in New Hampshire, Alaska, Ohio and Nebraska have all expressed concerns over Trump’s decision to allow imports…