Republicans face midterm backlash from factory workers squeezed out of jobs by Trump's tariffs
Nelson Vandermeer voted Republican for decades but balked at supporting President Donald Trump, fearing that the Republican’s plan for tariffs on imports would hurt workers more than help.
Last year, Vandermeer’s premonition came true in a very personal way. The 62-year-old lost his job as a product designer at Howard Miller, a clockmaker that relied on parts produced overseas. After a century in business, the company in Zeeland, Michigan, closed its factory, sold off its inventory and brand name and laid off nearly 200 workers.
“So much for bringing jobs back,” Vandermeer said. Next month, he plans to vote straight Democrat in the midterms.
As if an unpopular war with Iran and persistent inflation were not enough trouble for Republicans, they are confronting a backlash over the tariffs that Trump made a cornerstone of his economic agenda. He promised that charging higher taxes on imports would spur a factory renaissance in the United States, but that has not come to pass. Although the country has added manufacturing jobs so far this year, the sector has fewer employees than when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers insisted that a factory boom is underway, citing increases in manufacturing output and more work in certain nonresidential construction trades. “Factory construction jobs of today mean more manufacturing jobs down the road once those factories come online,” she said.
Even before the tariffs, Howard Miller struggled as Americans lost their taste for fancy timepieces such as its signature grandfather and mantel clocks. So the company broadened its offerings years ago to include bar carts, cabinets and consoles.
But those products also depended on glass and other parts from abroad, and diversification did not ensure survival.
“I could still have a job, but now I don’t because of tariffs,” Vandermeer said. “It was like taking a knife to the back.”
Job losses pile up in battleground states
Vandermeer lives in Michigan’s 4th Congressional District, which is represented by Republican Bill Huizenga, who is running for a ninth term in the Nov. 3 election.
Before Trump implemented his broadest set of tariffs last year, on what the president called “Liberation Day,” Huizenga was supportive.
“Is it going to be easy? Not necessarily. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely it is,” he told reporters at the time.
A spokesperson for Huizenga said last week that the congressman “sees a potential role for tariffs” for boosting domestic manufacturing “while recognizing the need to address their broader economic effects.” His Democratic opponent, state Sen. Sean McCann, has criticized the incumbent for opposing legislation that would rein in tariffs that Trump imposed unilaterally.
There are similar issues in competitive races in Kansas, Iowa and Ohio, where Republican acquiescence could hurt the party on Election Day as their constituents face factory layoffs, farm foreclosures and higher prices.
