Embattled Republicans rebuff Trump as their U.S. Senate races tighten

Republican U.S. Senate candidates in key battleground states are more assertively distancing themselves from U.S. President Donald Trump and some of his signature policies less than four weeks before the midterm elections.

Michigan’s Mike Rogers — who last month spoke at Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas — is the latest embattled candidate signaling to voters that he isn’t beholden to a president whose popularity has been plunging amid frustration over the cost of living, tariffs and war in Iran.

“Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy,” Rogers, drinking a bottle of Canadian lager Labatt, says in a new ad posted Wednesday. “We need to end this tariff war now.”

The state’s automakers have incurred billions in costs from Trump’s tariffs, in particular with vehicles and parts traded with Mexico and Canada. Michigan farmers have also seen exports of corn, soybeans and cherries tumble when China and Canada responded to Trump’s move with tariffs of their own.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that he didn’t interpret Rogers’ statement as critical of his tariffs on Canada. “I viewed him as saying that he thinks Canada should make a deal,” Trump said.

The Rogers ad sparked a quick retort from his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, who said in a social media post that Rogers “cheerled this tariffs war from the beginning.”

“Donald is the reason we’re in a trade war. And he’s the reason you’re running,” El-Sayed wrote.

Poll after poll shows economic worries are top of mind for U.S. voters, with gasoline and diesel prices taking a toll on Americans since the outbreak of the war with Iran in late February. U.S. mortgage rates climbed for a seventh straight week to their highest level in nearly three years — 7.49% — compounding the nation’s affordability problem.

That’s led to Democrats having a better chance at retaking the Senate, a goal once seen as out of reach. The party needs a net gain of four seats to win the majority. Increasingly, states from Alaska to Kansas that were long seen as GOP bastions are looking more vulnerable.

Rogers’ criticism came less than a day after Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins was pressed about whether Trump would campaign in Maine, as the president suggested in a comment to reporters earlier this week. After initially deflecting a straight yes-or-no response, Collins waved her hand and said “I would say that he is not coming to Maine.”

That was one of several moments in Tuesday’s debate with Democrat Troy Jackson during which Collins had to respond to questions about her support of Trump. The president lost Maine in all three of his presidential elections.

Collins has pressed the Trump administration to ease some tariffs, including on cement and rock salt, which have a disproportionate impact on Maine’s economy. But Jackson said Collins wasn’t doing enough given her seniority in the party to lower prices.

“What about everything else? We can’t eat road salt,” Jackson said.

In recent weeks, Trump’s poll ratings have put him in the position of largely campaigning in deep red states ahead of the Nov. 3 election. On Wednesday he’ll be in Texas, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, citing a conflicting event and in a tightening race with state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, won’t be at the rally.

In some states, Trump’s support is still seen as a lifeline that can help ensure a vulnerable candidate gets across the finish line.

Trump’s former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said the president should head to South Carolina to help shore up the Senate candidacy of Darline Graham, with signs that some Republicans frustrated with the president or their nominee will write in a candidate as a protest vote.

“It wouldn’t hurt if Trump would show up at least one more time” to help Graham, Mulvaney wrote. The president won South Carolina in 2024 by about 18 percentage points. The latest average of polls by RealClearPolitics shows Graham with a 2.4 percentage point lead over her opponent, Democrat Annie Andrews.