Congress
Tariff votes hand Republicans an unwanted referendum on affordability
A small GOP rebellion is unleashing a flood of House votes on President Donald Trump’s tariff policies in the coming weeks — handing Democrats a powerful tool to hammer Republicans on affordability issues ahead of the November midterms.
House leaders had shielded their most vulnerable Republicans from politically explosive votes on tariffs for more than a year, but now the fallout is reverberating on Capitol Hill and in tough battleground races around the country.
Six Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats Wednesday to overturn Trump’s Canada tariffs — a vote that took place only after three of those GOP members bucked Speaker Mike Johnson and voted Tuesday to reject a provision that would have blocked it. The move is likely to force a Trump veto.
More votes are coming: Senior House Democrats plan to call up at least three more resolutions that will force many Republicans to choose between protecting their tariff-hit districts and pleasing their MAGA voter bases — not to mention their loyalties to a president who has, up until this week, not tolerated any House GOP dissent on the matter.
Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who leads the House Democratic campaign arm, said in an interview that her group would “continue to hold every single vulnerable Republican responsible for their broken promise to lower prices.”
“If Republicans think this is such a great idea, then they can vote to support the tariffs,” she added. “But … we’re going to make sure that they’re accountable for their votes.”
The tariff votes — brought to the House floor under special expedited procedures that Johnson and other GOP leaders cannot easily block — are already making some farm-state Republicans squirm. Trump’s tariff wars have weighed heavily on agricultural exports, and many committed free-traders have long since had to make their peace with Trump’s policies.
“I’ve been critical of the tariffs,” said Rep. Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.). “But having said that, we’ve come this far.” He echoed a leadership argument — that Trump’s sweeping tariff powers could be confirmed or curtailed in a Supreme Court ruling expected sometime before July.
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), another tariff skeptic who chairs the Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, painted the Democratic effort to reject the tariffs as a political stunt. Like Schmidt, he voted to support the Canada tariffs Wednesday.
“I welcome a sincere discussion on trade policy and the role in the legislative branch — any time, any place,” Smith said. “I’m not sensing that this is one that is intended to be a good discussion.”
But those in more vulnerable districts and seeking other offices weren’t so eager to chat about the tough vote. Many have been uneasy with the president’s slash-and-burn trade policy and skeptical of the White House’s pleas for patience as Trump pursues trade deals. A recent Blue Light News poll showed that more Americans oppose Trump’s tariffs than support them.
One of the six Republicans opposing the Canada tariffs Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado, cited congressional powers, not political concerns, in explaining his vote, while also noting the steep impact tariffs have had on farmers and manufacturers in his district.
“My job is to defend my district and my Constitution at the same time,” he said in an interview. “This is not a partisan issue for me.”
Rep. David Schweikert, a longtime free-trade advocate who is running for governor of Arizona in a heavily contested GOP primary, said he was on the fence ahead of the Canada vote but ultimately came to a different conclusion.
“Part of my angst is, it’s a taxing authority. Taxing authority belongs with Congress. So in some ways, it’s a classic, you know, do I defend the Constitution?”
Democrats are now preparing to move ahead with multiple additional resolutions overturning Trump’s tariffs in Mexico and Brazil, as well as the president’s global “Liberation Day” tariffs. They see them as up-or-down referendums on a key policy driving up costs for Americans as recent special and off-year elections show voters turning against the GOP.
“Those folks are starting to speak out,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the lead proponent of the tariff votes. “Those are warning signs to them that they need to do what the right thing is, and not just follow the president and his wayward ways.”
Tariff politics are already making their mark on a number of campaigns — especially in districts and states where manufacturing or agriculture have been adversely impacted. Rep. Haley Stevens, who is running in a competitive Democratic primary for a Michigan Senate seat, has hammered the Trump levies as part of her affordability message.
“Erratic, shoot-by-the-hip tariffs are causing Michiganders an incredible cost. They’re raising the cost of groceries and everyday goods,” Stevens told reporters after a United Auto Workers candidate forum held Wednesday in Washington. “We can’t withstand this level of uncertainty and chaos.”
The tariff votes were unlocked by a trio of House Republicans who are unusually immune to intraparty pressure. One, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, is a libertarian rebel who has clashed with Trump for months. Another, Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, had his district redrawn by Democrats last year and is less eager to toe the party line.
The third, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), is retiring after repeated disagreements with the White House on tariffs, foreign policy and other matters. He said in an interview Wednesday the levies have simply been bad for his Omaha-centered district and that it was time to take a stand.
“There’s so many companies struggling against tariffs, and that’s what the president needs to hear,” he said. “Our farmers are struggling.”
White House officials and House GOP leaders unleashed an all-out pressure campaign to try to force the rebels to fall in line, calling around to other House Republicans and staffers asking “what buttons to push” with the holdouts, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the covert effort.
Bacon said that after he voted against the procedural measure and left the floor Tuesday night, GOP leaders tried to persuade him to come back and negotiate, offering tariff carve-outs and other incentives for businesses in his district.
“They were shocked,” Bacon recounted. “They said, ‘Why don’t you stick around?’ I said, ‘I’m not planning on negotiating.’”
After the tariff votes were unleashed, the Trump administration pivoted its lobbying campaign, according to one White House official, and is now focused on maintaining enough GOP support to prevent veto overrides. More than 70 Republicans would have to break ranks to meet the two-thirds majority for an override.
Some Democrats expected a major GOP jailbreak Wednesday, thinking Republicans would not want to threaten their reelection chances by voting to sustain the tariffs.
“[Republicans] have been remarkably loyal to a bad policy,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “They were thinking about the president as this term began and as this push on tariffs was launched. And now they’re thinking about themselves.”
But as House members were voting Wednesday, Trump publicly threatened any turncoats.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” he wrote on Truth Social.
When the gavel fell, only Hurd and two other Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Dan Newhouse of Washington — had joined Bacon, Kiley and Massie. The tight margin all but guaranteed that the House will fail to override a Trump veto.
Elena Schneider contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will headline a fundraiser next week for Rep. Mike Collins, the state’s GOP Senate nominee, according to an invite obtained by Blue Light News.
The Sept. 24 event will be held in Atlanta, and it comes as public polling shows Collins trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans have pushed to bring in more financial resources to close the gap in the top battleground.
Ossoff has repeatedly led Collins in candidate-level fundraising, but the Republican party committees and President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC combined hold a huge fundraising edge over the affiliated Democratic Party’s committees — which could potentially give Collins a boost.
The event, billed as a “roundtable and reception benefiting” Collins, could be a boon to Georgia Republicans, who have privately worried that party leaders are prioritizing other competitive Senate races, including in Michigan and Maine, as they look to defend the upper chamber.
Thune, as Senate GOP leader, is one of the party’s most prominent fundraisers. Kemp, meanwhile, has strong ties to Georgia and remains a popular figure in the state.
Collins’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The party is closing ranks behind Mike Collins with two of the strongest fundraisers heading to Atlanta to help him,” said one person close to the Collins campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics of the race. “That’s not the sign of a candidate in trouble, it’s the sign of a candidate — who has closed the race from 13 to 7 points while being outspent — getting air support to bring this thing home.”
Kemp — who initially backed former football coach Derek Dooley in the Senate GOP primary — endorsed Collins earlier this week.
The fundraiser will also feature Georgia’s first lady Marty Kemp.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries again declined to say how he will respond to two rebel Democrats who have twice bucked party leaders to advance the Republican floor agenda.
“As I repeatedly made clear, I’ll have more to say — we’ll have more to say — about the situation when we have more to say about the situation,” Jeffries said at a Thursday news conference with the No. 2 and 3 leaders, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.
Clark suggested Wednesday that one of the rebels, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, should lose her Appropriations Committee seat after the second break. After Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden of Maine voted with Republicans earlier this month, Jeffries pledged a “serious response” that did not publicly materialize.
Standing beside Clark and Aguilar on Thursday, Jeffries said, “There is no daylight between the three of us, and we’ll address the situation when we address the situation.”
“The focus right now on taking back control of the House of Representatives,” he added. “That’s what the American people want to see — a dramatic change in this country because they are drowning.”
Sen. Jon Husted will try to send the first major legislative action to address the costs of the artificial intelligence boom to President Donald Trump’s desk Thursday.
The Ohio Republican, facing a tough reelection bid, will try to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act by requesting unanimous consent from his colleagues, a process by which senators can swiftly clear legislation. It would take only one senator to object, however, to sink the effort.
“Senator Husted will go to the floor this afternoon and request a live UC on the Ratepayer Protection Act,” said Olivia Tripodi, a spokesperson for his office.
If passed, the Ratepayer Protection Act could become Congress’s answer to address the costs of the data center build-out ahead of the midterm election. It comes after weeks of internal debate among lawmakers in both parties over how to best respond to growing backlash against data centers and could set the stage for further congressional action on AI in the months ahead.
It’s unclear, however, if all Democrats will line up behind the bill, which passed in a broad bipartisan House vote of 417-3 on Wednesday.
Democrats haven’t said if they will block Husted’s bill, but they could make a counteroffer to try to pass their own legislation instead, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly. Some Democrats have said the bill doesn’t go far enough to protect ratepayers.
“Data centers is a key issue and Jon Husted is in a very tough race, … so this is a frequent approach: last-minute legislation on a subject that’s controversial in the senatorial contest,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
The bill would require states to consider — but not mandate they adopt — a federal standard ensuring large data center operators cover 100% of the costs of new generation and transmission upgrades.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) also said he would need to review the bill more closely.
“I’ve got to review that more closely if it’s going to be UC,” Lee said Tuesday. “There are several other procedural mechanisms by which this could receive a vote in some fashion.”
Husted is leading the Senate version of the bill, while Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) sponsored the House bill.
Anthony Cruz contributed to this report.
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