Need some encouraging news? Of course, you do:
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 (6,000 hectares) 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.
"This tariff situation has got me very, very, very concerned," Tosh told The Associated Press. "I just think Bredesen would be better on that situation." He said Blackburn has shifted "toward the center" on tariffs, "but in my opinion, it's a little late and not far enough."
Other red states with Democratic Senators like Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota are using Trump’s idiotic trade war to help bolster their chances for re-election. But Tennessee is a special case because the trade war is actually costing the GOP a Senate seat:
But back in Tennessee, Blackburn has been backed into a corner by the state’s business leaders.
Tennessee whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s, for example, sends roughly 60 percent of its business out of the country.
Jack Daniel’s parent company was forced to increase prices across Europe as a result of tariffs imposed by the European Union in response to Trump’s tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum. Shares of the company dropped sharply last month after Mexico announced plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on whiskey in response to Trump’s moves.
“Tariffs such as these, they can only do harm,” said Jack Daniel’s general manager Larry Combs.
Another major Tennessee employer, home appliance maker Electrolux, continues to delay a $250 million expansion in Tennessee “given the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy,” said company spokeswoman Eloise Hale.
“These tariffs are directly increasing our costs,” she said.
The Democrat in the Senate race, former Gov. Bredesen, has seized on the issue. Even in a state Trump won by 26 points, he’s betting he can use Blackburn’s loyalty to the president against her because of the tariff-related fallout.
“She clearly is very loath to do anything contrary to what the Trump playbook is,” Bredesen said.
“The way I’ve read her expression is, ‘We elected Trump president. I’m here to make sure he gets his agenda passed,’” Bredesen continued. “What I would like to do is say, ‘Look, I’m there to be with the president on stuff that makes sense for Tennessee, to be against him on stuff that is not.’ And that’s true whether it’s a D or an R president.”
Bredesen even made the tariffs an issue in his latest ad:
Let’s prove that being pro-Trump in a red state isn’t enough to save Republicans like Blackburn, Let’s have the Blue Wave also hit Tennessee by flipping both the U.S. Senate and the Governor’s race. Click below to donate and get involved with Bredesen’s U.S. Senate campaign and Karl Dean’s (D. TN) gubernatorial campaign:
Phil Bredesen for U.S. Senate
Karl Dean for Governor