Tennessee

The Washington Post: Republicans struggle to run with Trump but against his trade wars

Missouri, National, North Dakota, Tennessee

President Trump’s trade war has handed Democratic candidates a cudgel in their effort to retake the Senate, forcing their GOP opponents into uncomfortable decisions about how closely to align with a polarizing president.

Democratic candidates in Tennessee, North Dakota, Missouri and elsewhere have campaigned on their opposition to Trump’s trade efforts and warned of coming economic damage. Several have engaged in high-profile events with sympathetic figures hurt by Trump’s tariffs, accusing their rivals of being complicit in the president’s policy.

The tariffs, and Democratic messaging concerning them, present GOP candidates with a complicated calculus: stand with Trump and support a policy that may threaten their constituents’ livelihoods or break ranks on trade with a president who is strongly backed by the party’s voters.

Read the full story here.

News Channel 5: Tariffs Front And Center Of U.S. Senate Race

Tennessee

In what will likely be one of the most hotly contested and expensive races this November for the U.S. Senate, Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Gov. Phil Bredesen squared off on Wednesday during one of the campaign’s first forums.

Blackburn, a Republican, is trying reassure voters that she believes some of President Trump’s tariffs are hurting Tennesseans, even though she has been a staunch supporter of the President since his inauguration.

While Bredesen, a Democrat and former Governor of Tennessee, is working to convince voters that he is not going to be rubber stamp vote for the party a whole. At one point telling the audience at a forum hosted by Lipscomb University that, “I don’t believe that if Chuck Schumer gets mad at me, I will go to hell automatically.”

Read the full story here.

The Wall Street Journal: ‘We Are at the Limit’: Trump’s Tariffs Turn Small Businesses Upside Down

California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas

M2S Bikes, an electric-bike startup, planned to build itself a 100-strong dealer network. Then came the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on China.

The firm, which employs five people in Asheville, N.C., imports the bikes it designs from a factory in Jinhua City, China, and says it can’t find comparable motors in the U.S. The tariffs would add $425 to the cost of its bikes, which currently retail for as much as $3,250. The dealership idea is now on hold while the company tries to figure out a new wholesale price that dealers will accept and that won’t kill its profit.

The Trump administration says tariffs on thousands of items from ball bearings to circuit boards are designed to counter what it sees as unfair trade practices that give Chinese firms a leg-up over their U.S. rivals.

Read the full story here.

Associated Press: Trump tariffs put GOP on defense in Tennessee’s Senate race

Tennessee

Marsha Blackburn is supposed to do well among Tennessee’s hog farmers and whiskey makers.

Yet the Republican Senate candidate is struggling to explain President Donald Trump’s nascent trade war to her state’s local business community. Jack Daniel’s whiskey and Jimmy Tosh’s hog farm are among those warning that Trump’s trade policies — and the Republican candidates who support them — are hurting the very people who backed the Republican president in the first place.

That’s forcing outspoken Trump supporters like Blackburn into an uncomfortable position in one of the nation’s top Senate races.

Read the full story here.

The Tennessean: An open letter from farmers: Trump tariffs are damaging | Opinion

Tennessee

Dear Tennessee Congressional Delegation,

Tennessee has a rich agricultural history; just look at our state’s seal. With over 65,000 farms throughout the state covering over 10 million acres, farmers are a key part of our economy.

While the majority of farms are small and make less than $25,000 a year, there are many family-sized farms that are dependent on international trade agreements that keep the market stable.

Read the full letter here.

Associated Press: In Tennessee, Trump’s tariffs, trade wars become an election-year political issues

Tennessee

Jimmy Tosh’s sprawling hog farm in rural Tennessee is an unlikely battleground in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate.

Yet his 15,000 acres two hours west of Nashville showcase the practical risks of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the political threat to red-state Republican Senate candidates such as Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.

Tosh, a third-generation farmer who almost always votes Republican, said he’s voting this fall for Blackburn’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, in part because Trump’s trade wars are hurting his family business – a sizable one with some 400 employees and 30,000 pigs. The cost of steel needed for new barns is up, Tosh said, and the expanding pork market stands to suffer under new tariffs.

Read the full story here.