The economic fallout from the Canada-U.S. trade war shaped several key U.S. midterm races, helping Democrats take control of the Senate on Tuesday.
Five tossup states that trade billions annually with Canada became major battlegrounds where candidates campaigned against the tariffs.
"We have to stand up to Donald Trump. We have to stand up for our democracy," winning Maine Democrat Troy Jackson told supporters in a victory speech after ousting longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
A report by policy analysts at Advancing American Freedom found that trade between Canada and the U.S. fell by US$50 billion in the past year.
Since January 2025, tourism from Canada has dropped across the U.S. by about 24 percent, according to Statistics Canada, with Forbes estimating that this cost America about US$4.5 billion last year.
In Michigan, the epicentre of the trade war, exports fell to US$20.9 billion from US$24.4 billion in 2024, and the state lost more than 15,600 jobs.
Republican Mike Rogers released an ad last month denouncing Trump’s tariffs while drinking a well-known Canadian beer, Labatt Blue, despite the president personally backing him.
Winning Democrat Abdul El-Sayed also ran on an anti-tariff campaign, appearing at a rally with former president Barack Obama, who mocked Trump’s tariff war with “evil empire” Canada.
In Maine, Collins successfully lobbied Trump’s administration last month to lift 50-percent tariffs in nine product categories, including seaweed, a multibillion-dollar industry with Canadian ties.
However, Trump replaced the levies with new ones of equal value on other goods, including waste products.
At a debate last month, Collins said she lobbied the White House to get Canadian concrete, pulp and road salt removed from the tariff list.
Jackson snapped back, saying, “We can’t eat road salt.”
The exchange went viral and spurred the sharing of “let them eat road salt” memes among progressives.
Governor Janet Mills attributed a 35-percent drop in car visits from Canada in 2025 directly to the tariff war.
In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown was victorious Tuesday night, returning to the Senate after losing his seat in 2024.
He ran on an anti-tariff campaign, calling the 50-percent levies on Canadian goods “idiotic” and “even more of a disaster.”
Exports from Ohio to Canada declined by 7 percent and imports declined by 2.4 percent since January 2025.
Democrat James Talarico made history in Texas on Tuesday night, becoming the first blue candidate to win a Senate seat in the state since 1988.
He has advocated for a full repeal of the tariffs, linking them to the affordability crisis and calling them “corrupt.”
A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey this year said manufacturers have been disproportionately affected, with 40 percent reporting that tariffs hurt them through increased input costs and selling prices.
Adam Hamilton also made history on Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate for Kansas since 1932.
He challenged the trade war with Canada, which he said targeted Kansas farmers and aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc.
Many voters who spoke to The Canadian Press on Tuesday hoped for an end to the tariff skirmish.
“There’s hardly any Americans who want Canadians to be antagonized and want to be in a trade war with Canada,” said Sydney Olson outside a Bangor polling station.
“Trade needs to be open and free across the border,” said Michael Furrow, a retired military officer who voted for Collins.
Some Republican voters said they wanted the levies to remain, at least to some extent.
“I’d like to see a level playing field,” said Mark McPherson, who agreed with Trump’s claim that the U.S. has been “ripped off” through global trade.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada has since started “more intense” trade negotiations with the United States after speaking with Trump over the weekend.
“We’ve made progress but we haven’t finished,” he told reporters Tuesday during a trip to Antigua and Barbuda.
e2gold.ca reported earlier this week that a Democratic Congress is unlikely to curb Trump's trade war against Canada, as analysts say the president's tariff powers are on firm legal ground.
This story was written by the e2gold.ca newsroom from reporting by The Globe and Mail, BNN Bloomberg and CBC News. Quotes are checked word for word against that reporting.