After latest trade war, tariffs reemerge as major campaign issue in Minnesota's key races

The latest trade war between the U.S. and Canada has brought tariff policy back to the forefront of the 2026 midterm elections, particularly in border states such as Minnesota, where the issue has become a potent line of attack for Democrats in the gubernatorial race.

On Monday, the Minnesota DFL organized a press conference with brewery owners, a farmer and a union leader, who all said they will support Sen. Amy Klobuchar for governor in November because of her opposition to President Trump’s tariff policies. After sponsoring a bill in the U.S. Senate that sought to overturn previous tariffs, Klobuchar slammed the Trump administration’s most recent posture toward Canada last week, saying the new trade war will “only make it harder for Minnesota businesses and farmers to compete and will further drive up prices.”

Ben Jordan, the CEO of ABV Technology, which now owns Bauhaus Brew Labs in Northeast Minneapolis, said tariffs on aluminum and stainless steel are among those driving up consumer costs.

“It has not worked,” Jordan said. “For us, all we’ve seen is price increases. In an industry where it’s gotten very, very hard to be competitive, where people are not drinking alcohol, not drinking beverages as much, not coming out as much, it’s one more slap in the face for me.”

The president’s insistence on new tariffs has raised some concerns among Republicans about potential ramifications to their candidates in federal and state races this November. In Maine, for example, U.S. Senator Susan Collins publicly opposed the Trump administration’s tariff policies as she seeks re-election to a key Senate seat.

In the Minnesota governor’s race, GOP nominee and House Speaker Lisa Demuth said last year that the president’s tariffs were “hard but effective.” However, after President Trump announced more tariffs last week on Canadian imports, Demuth posted that she would “encourage the Trump Administration and the Canadian government to restart talks so Minnesota businesses and consumers are not hurt. We must find a better path forward.”

She reiterated that call at a campaign event last Tuesday at the Minnesota State Capitol.

“Tariffs definitely have a purpose. My hope as we look forward, even with Canada, is that those talks would resume, and we could make things more affordable for Minnesota,” Demuth said, calling tariffs a federal issue. “What I am really focused on right now is our state and the affordability. What has made this state unaffordable is the amount of fraud.”

Tariffs are a particularly sensitive topic in heavy agricultural states such as Minnesota and its surrounding border states in the Upper Midwest. In Iowa, for example, Democratic candidate Rob has pounded GOP nominee Zach Lahn over the issue of tariffs and trade policies coming from the Trump administration.

The same is true for U.S. House races in agricultural districts, such as the First Congressional District in Southern Minnesota, where Democratic challenger Jake Johnson has repeatedly criticized incumbent Rep. Brad Finstad for his support of the president’s tariffs. In separate interviews with KARE 11, Johnson said that farmers in his district simply “do not like them,” while Finstad said tariffs can diversify trade markets and show that “we stand for America first.” For Minnesota’s soybean farmers, the trade war with China has been an especially controversial topic of discussion.

University of Minnesota economics professor Tim Kehoe said the public should be careful to note the difference between tariff policies toward China compared to North American partners such as Canada. He explained that the president’s newest tariffs on Canada account for only about 5 percent of all U.S. imports from Canada.

“I’m going to tell you one of the reasons for that, is a lot of the trade, a lot of the big volume of trade between the United States and North American neighbors is trade done by multinational corporations,” Kehoe said. “The trade war that’s going on now, it generates a lot of heat, emotions and bad feelings but it’s actually a very small thing. We’re putting tariffs on about $20 billion U.S. dollars worth of imports from Canada. Just to give you an order of magnitude, Canadian exports to the United States every year are something in the range of $400 billion to $500 billion.”

Kehoe said the trade war impacts Canada more than it does the U.S., although he said he doesn’t believe the tariff strategy will ultimately bring manufacturing jobs back to America.

“There’s nothing wrong with manufacturing in the United States. The same jobs are not going to come back,” Kehoe said, “because they’re based on an old technology that we’re going to end up not using.”