Democratic Party campaign ads address tariffs ahead of midterms

The Democratic Party's candidates and party-affiliated groups featured numerous campaign ads about tariffs ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, blaming the signature trade policy of the Trump administration for raising costs for ordinary Americans and businesses and creating a wedge between the United States and its key international trade partners.

The ads featured in multiple campaigns from New Hampshire and Michigan to California and other states. Democratic Party-affiliated channels were responsible for 46 out of 47 YouTube videos by campaigns and national party channels that had tariffs in their titles or descriptions, according to research on Oct 27 by the Cato Institute, a nonpartisan, libertarian think tank in Washington DC.

"Concerns about affordability sit at the top of most voters' minds these midterms, and thus, high and sweeping tariffs promoted by The White House have understandably become a culprit behind increases in Americans' cost of living," the Cato Institute wrote in its research.

While the Democratic campaigns focused heavily on the impact of the levies, the only Republican-affiliated video that mentioned it came from Mike Rogers' campaign for Michigan's Senate seat urging the Trump administration to end the US-Canada tariff war.

Democratic campaigns for the House of Representatives spent more than $58 million on ads criticizing tariffs and trade protectionism, The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct 23.

In contrast, Cato found that Republicans spent no money on ads defending them, preferring to stay quiet instead.

The president's widespread use of tariffs in his second term in office, especially on the country's top trading partners — Mexico, Canada and China — shifted the international trade landscape, said an economist.

Stephen Roach, senior research scholar of the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, told China Daily that the impact of US tariffs on China has been "negative", as it "raised tensions between the world's two largest economies and it boosted US inflation".

"There's nothing positive about tariffs despite what President Trump continues to insist," Roach said.

In September, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that a US-China trade truce, set to expire on Nov 10, would be extended by two months to Jan 10, 2027, allowing the countries to negotiate further.

However, several Democrats seized upon the use of tariffs as an opportunity to paint their party as being more trade-friendly compared to the Republican Party.

In Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed blasted tariffs on Canada as being a threat to Michigan's auto industry, Politico reported.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both seen as potential 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls, also both mentioned tariffs in speeches in New Hampshire in October. Buttigieg blamed tariffs for higher prices. 

Democrats were more likely than Republicans and Independents to blame tariffs for a rise in prices that echoed some voters' concerns, an October poll by the Council on Foreign Relations and Morning Consult found.

Jeremy, a 46-year-old voter originally from Utah but now living in New York, raised the issue of tariffs after doing a "write-in vote", a type of protest vote in the midterms.

While he usually votes Democrat, he was clear about what he thinks the government can do to bring down costs.

"First of all, stop this war in Iran. And secondly, it's pretty easy to me, take away the tariffs," he told China Daily. He said his concerns "absolutely" affected how he voted as he was "frustrated" with Democrats.

At least 75 percent of registered voters surveyed in a Cato and Morning Consult survey said that tariffs would be "important" for their vote in the midterms.

Over 88 percent polled who identified as Democrats identified tariffs as important to their vote compared to 65 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents.

"Tariffs being top of mind for more than 50 percent of voters across the political spectrum is an outcome that most trade analysts probably would not have expected before the Trump administration took office," the Cato Institute said in its analysis High Tariffs Are Not Just Bad Economics but Bad Politics, Too.

Jay Wilkes, a 70-year-old from Brooklyn, New York voted a week before the midterms. He expressed how detrimental he thought tariffs were against international US trade partners.

"I'm concerned," Wilkes told China Daily after he cast his vote. "Something has to be done to sort this all out. Everything is getting expensive. I think the tariffs have a lot to do with it."

Most blue-collar workers who were polled in August 2025 supported tariffs, the Economic Innovation Group found. But when polled again in October it found that 58 percent opposed them.

That comes despite Trump vowing that tariffs would usher in a "golden age" and prioritize American workers during his speech in the Rose Garden on Apr 2, 2025 on so-called "Liberation Day".