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The chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm is already mapping out how her caucus can wield President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs against Republicans come 2026.
“It’s important that we continue to talk [about] not only the impact, but what we could be doing instead,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., told Semafor in an interview at her Capitol Hill office. “We could be focused on helping working families. We could be engaged in policy where we look at how we build a strong economy going forward.”
DelBene sat down soon after her Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unveiled 35 House seats held by Republicans that they hope to flip in next year’s midterm elections. Several are in states that will be hit hardest by Trump’s new levies.
Lawmakers have already started building their case this week as they grill Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, in back-to-back appearances. DelBene said she plans to press Greer on the president’s trade agenda when he testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
“How do you ever do any trade if we have a trade deal and the president can just kind of blow it up on a whim?” DelBene said of her planned line of questioning.
“I think it would make it really hard for any partner to negotiate with a president who doesn’t seem to be interested in — even a policy that he put in place — in making sure that he continues to honor that,” DelBene added. “So how does he think trade’s gonna work going forward with anybody?”
The View From Suzan DelBene
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Eleanor Mueller: How are Democrats planning to message on Trump’s tariffs headed into the midterm elections?
Suzan DelBene: This is a tax on American families. Costs are going up at the grocery store, the gas pump, at the pharmacy counter. This is a No. 1 issue for voters, last election: the cost of living, housing, food, child care, health care. And Republicans have broken the promise to lower costs.
Tariffs not only are raising costs — it’s been chaotic, unpredictable, and that’s a terrible economic environment going forward too, where no one knows how to plan because they don’t know what’s going to happen next. And our farmers, our small businesses, are all getting hit hard.
Do Democrats believe that the effects of Trump’s tariffs are, to a degree, self-evident?
It’s important that we continue to talk [about] not only the impact, but what we could be doing instead. We could be focused on helping working families. We could be engaged in policy where we look at how we build a strong economy going forward — as opposed to the the random and destructive layoffs that we’ve seen in the federal government, the dismantling of Social Security and attacks on Medicaid, programs that people depend on are being dismantled — and now we are in a situation where prices are going up because of tariffs. People have lost jobs. People see the programs they depend on being taken away.
So — are Democrats the free-trade party now?
We are saying that we should have a vote in Congress. Congress should have a say.
Congress actually has jurisdiction over taxes and trade. And so, I have put forward legislation making it clear that Congress has a role, and Congress needs to have a vote before any of this can go in place. No. 1, that should be there.
And then [No.] 2, if you look at Canada and Mexico, we have a trade agreement in place, and the president’s basically blowing that up without congressional approval. None of this makes sense.
But the real thing is, we could be doing important work, and not raising prices on American families.
What is that important work, as far as the alternative economic vision that Democrats should be peddling voters?
First of all, making sure that critical programs that people depend on and have paid into, like Social Security, are strengthened — not being dismantled. Making sure that we continue to have affordable, quality health care for folks across the country, as opposed to threatening to cut Medicaid for what tax breaks for the wealthy and well-connected.
This is about fairness. It’s about building a strong economy, and it’s about addressing the challenges that families are seeing.
We talk about things like housing: Housing costs are going up because of Trump’s actions and the impact he’s having on the ability for folks to finance new construction and build more affordable housing. We can do things like expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to help make sure that we have more affordable housing in our communities. This is actually something that I have been leading on, and has been a bipartisan solution. But is that the priority? No. The priority is tariffs with no plan in place, and raising costs on American families for no reason.
What do you see happening with bipartisan legislation to give Congress more power over tariffs?
Republicans have been blindly loyal to Donald Trump, but they don’t seem interested in listening to their constituents or doing policy that’s helping their constituents. They promised that they were going to lower prices. Trump said he’s going to lower prices on Day One.
That’s a broken promise, when they’re not doing anything to help families. And you’ve got the tariffs, and now you have this budget coming forward with huge cuts to Medicaid, the dismantling of Social Security.
Are you more optimistic about Democrats’ odds now than you were before Trump’s tariffs?
Well, we’re going to hold them accountable. I think this will definitely be a referendum on the policies of this administration and the blind loyalty of Republicans in Congress who aren’t willing to stand up.
Oversight: We are a co-equal branch of government. We tried to have Elon Musk come in just to answer questions about access to sensitive taxpayer data. Republicans refused to bring him in. If he’s doing such a great job, why wouldn’t you want him to come in and talk about the work that he’s doing? They’re not interested in that.
Votes on tariffs: Congress has an important role to play here. Republicans, even Republicans who in the past have insisted that Congress needs to have a say, have somehow become incredibly silent and capable of standing up. Folks want candidates who are going to stand up for their communities and fight for their communities.