President Donald Trump speaks at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual presidential dinner at Union Station on March 25, 2026 in Washington.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
With less than 100 days until the 2026 midterm elections, Republicans see an opportunity to score points with their Democratic colleagues on an unlikely issue: tariffs.
The National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday launched a digital ad campaign targeting vulnerable House Democrats and Democratic candidates in battleground states who oppose President Donald Trump’s China tariffs (shared exclusively with CNBC).
These ads seek to link Democratic opposition to President Trump’s tariffs with support for China, but the targeted advertisers oppose the White House’s import tariffs on the grounds that they increase costs for U.S. consumers and harm agricultural producers and U.S. allies.
“House Democrats had a simple choice: stand with American workers or stand with communist China. They chose China. Voters will never forget who stood with American workers and who stood with China,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement.
The ad, which ran on social media in 15 congressional districts in California, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania, features the words “China First. America Last” next to images of Democrats in battleground states. The NRCC described it as a “modest ad buy,” but declined to say how much it spent.
The ad depicts the two parties vying for control of Congress as this election year draws to a close, with Republicans attempting to overcome President Trump’s low approval ratings and general anxiety about the economic situation to maintain a slim majority in the House. There is widespread support for Democrats to take back the chamber.
“House Republicans are so out of touch that they are cynically bragging about the tariff increases that everyone hates,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Beto Shelton said in a statement. “It’s outrageous that House Republicans are turning against millions of American families by proudly advertising that they’re making your life more expensive.”
President Trump has made tariffs a key economic policy of his second term, recently reimposing new import duties on dozens of countries and the European Union after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to his administration earlier this year by striking down many of the tariffs already in place.
The White House on Friday announced new tariffs on 60 trading partners, including China, setting import duties from 10% to 12.5%, citing alleged labor law violations.
President Trump has argued that tariffs are an important revenue-generating tool that further expands the playing field for American companies. But perceptions of his trade policies are mixed even among Republicans. And inflation and consumer prices remain high as President Trump promised that tariffs would make American jobs more plentiful and domestic goods more affordable.
Some Republicans rejected the president and voted against some of the tariffs. And recent polls regarding President Trump’s handling of trade policy and the economy in general have been unfavorable.
In a CNBC National Economic Survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted in July, 60% of respondents said they disapproved of President Trump’s handling of the economy, and 73% said the current state of the economy was only fair or bad.
According to a Harris poll conducted in late February for the Guardian newspaper, seven in 10 Americans said President Trump’s tariffs had led to higher prices.
But some industry groups have welcomed the tariffs, including the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a lobby group representing U.S. manufacturers that seeks stronger federal protections from foreign competition.
In a statement after President Trump’s latest tariff announcement, CPA Chairman John Toomey said, “The administration’s new labor tariffs are an important recognition that the era of unlimited duty-free tariffs is over.” “Critics in Congress must explain why it makes sense to expose American workers, farmers, and ranchers to unlimited price competition with producers of similar products in other countries.”
Democrats have campaigned extensively to repeal President Trump’s tariffs if they win a majority in Congress, and some of the House members targeted in the ad — including Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada, and Rep. Emilia Sykes of Ohio — voted to repeal President Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
Cleaver talked about how tariffs on China, one of the largest international buyers of U.S. agricultural products, are hurting farmers. Lawmakers like Titus and Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) have criticized President Trump’s broad application of tariffs while arguing that U.S. trade policy should be used to counter adversaries like China.
Others targeted by NRCC ads, such as Paige Cognetti and Janelle Stelson, who are running to unseat Republican incumbents in Pennsylvania, argue that the cost of tariffs falls on Americans, not on the countries where they are imposed, including China.
Eric Chang, a Democratic candidate running in Michigan’s targeted 10th Congressional District, said tariffs can be a “useful tool,” but their application is ineffective.
“We cannot use all tariffs all the time. Sometimes we need to introduce economic carrots to encourage industrial return,” Chong said on his campaign page.
