RINOs are a big issue. But they’re better than Democrats.
Now a RINO Republican gets a huge gift from Donald Trump that could save their campaign hopes.
With the Senate majority hanging by a thread, President Trump has made a move that will help one of the most endangered Republicans in the country. The White House is lifting tariffs on some Canadian goods used by Maine’s farmers and fishermen, handing Sen. Susan Collins a talking point in the final stretch of a race that polls show is anyone’s game.
Collins announced the relief on Friday. The exemptions cover nine categories of Canadian products used by Maine’s agricultural industries, including agricultural machinery, refrigeration equipment and packaging, and they are meant to benefit blueberry, potato, apple and seaweed producers. “I am pleased to have secured additional tariff exemptions products crucial to Maine’s agricultural industries,” Collins said in a statement.
The relief is not a free pass. The White House said it would impose tariffs on other Canadian products, including valves and carpets, in their place. In other words, the administration is shifting the burden from one set of goods to another rather than abandoning the policy, which leaves open questions about who pays for the substitution.
Collins has not been shy about her disagreement with the tariffs. She previously warned, “If the Administration proceeds with these tariffs, they will increase costs for Maine families, as most businesses will have no choice but to pass on the tariffs to their customers through higher prices.” Her office said she “stressed the burdens additional costs impose on Maine businesses and families” in repeated conversations with senior administration officials.
Those conversations paid off at the most politically useful moment imaginable. The race is a toss-up, according to a new Fox News poll showing Collins and her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, tied at 49 percent. Trump’s job rating in the state is 25 points underwater, and 53 percent of Maine voters say they are concerned that Collins votes with Trump too much. When a vulnerable incumbent is trying to show independence, a tariff exemption she personally negotiated is hard to beat.
Her opponents noticed immediately. Jackson did not mince words. “Trump’s trade wars have made life harder and more expensive for Mainers. Susan Collins enabled this chaos, voted to confirm the people behind it, and now wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put out the fire,” he said, adding that “Mainers needed help long before Susan Collins needed saving.” Another critic accused the pair of running a “mafia-style protection racket.” That last line is campaign rhetoric, not analysis, but the underlying jab about timing will resonate with some voters.
There is a fair response. Collins has argued that she frequently breaks with the president, and what she did here is exactly what voters say they want from a senator: she went to the administration, argued the case for her state’s producers and came home with a concrete result. Opponents may call it political, but delivering for constituents is the job.
The episode also exposes the larger tension at the heart of the tariff strategy. Tariffs are meant to protect American workers and force trading partners to play fair, goals that many working-class voters share. But they fall unevenly. When Maine’s blueberry growers, potato farmers and seaweed harvesters rely on equipment and packaging from across the border, a blanket tariff hits them directly.
Populists who care about the people who actually make things in this country should hold that tension in mind. The right way to use tariffs is to target the practices of foreign governments that harm American industry, not to tax the inputs that American farmers need to compete. Exemptions like these suggest the administration knows that, even if they arrive only when a Senate seat is on the line.
The politics go beyond Maine. Collins is the chair of the Appropriations Committee and one of the few Republicans who can win in a state that has been drifting blue. Democrats lost their first choice for the seat, Graham Platner, and scrambled to replace him with Jackson, a former state Senate president whose truncated campaign has kept the race tight. Control of the Senate may turn on a few thousand votes in places like this.
That is why the relief matters beyond the specifics. If it helps Collins hold on, it protects a Republican majority that the president needs to confirm nominees and pass legislation. If it comes across as a transparent election-eve fix, it could remind voters that the administration’s trade policy has real costs and that relief goes to those with the loudest voice.
Whichever way it plays, Mainers will be the judge. Early voting is underway, and candidates in both parties are making their closing arguments. A tariff exemption will not decide the race on its own, but in a state where the margin could be razor thin, every voter who feels the administration is finally listening is one more vote for the incumbent.
For farmers and fishermen, the immediate effect is simple: lower costs on the equipment they need. For the rest of us, it is a reminder that policy has consequences, that those consequences are felt in places far from Washington, and that the best way to get a hearing from the administration is to make sure your representatives know what is at stake.
