Trump’s proposed tariff could boost GOP in steel land
Saccone might benefit in 18th District race
On Thursday, President Donald Trump seemed poised to fulfill a campaign promise to protect America’s metal manufacturers.
“You’ll have protection for a long time,” he told executives during a roundtable meeting at which he floated steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
But some observers suggest that Mr. Trump’s announcement may also help protect another key constituency — congressional Republicans. A formal tariff announcement is due in the next several days, meaning it could land just in time to help Republican Rick Saccone in a special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.
“It does seem on one level to be an attempt to affect an election that has turned into a nail-biter,” observed veteran pollster Terry Madonna, a professor at Franklin & Marshall College.
Indeed, there is some speculation that Mr. Trump may formally unveil his tariff plan during a visit to Moon next Saturday, just ahead of the March 13 election in which Mr. Saccone will face Democrat Conor Lamb.
Metals manufacturing has deep economic and historical ties in southwestern Pennsylvania, including swaths of the 18th District itself.
The AFL-CIO estimates that the district contains 17,000 voters who are either steelworkers or related to them. Unions are key to Democratic hopes of winning an upset in the district, which backed Mr. Trump by roughly 20 percent in 2016. Yet polling shows a tight race between Mr. Lamb and Mr. Saccone.
“Trump’s potential visit to the district to talk up a labor-friendly policy to restore American steel and aluminum production would be one way to help Republican candidate Rick Saccone solidify his support,” CNBC observed earlier this week.
Mr. Trump canceled a mid-February visit to Ambridge after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The Trump campaign pledged to reschedule the trip “in the very near future,” and announced Friday that it had done so.
Would such a move have an impact on a race that polls show is neck and neck?
“It’s a tough thing to determine,” Mr. Madonna said, adding the move could serve as an effort “to go around union leaders and go directly to the rank and file. It allows the Saccone campaign to say that in partnership with Donald Trump, he can get things like this done.”
“Rick supports free trade as long as it’s fair. If other countries aren’t playing by the rules and tariffs are needed to protect steel and aluminum jobs in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Rick would support those measures,” Mr. Saccone’s campaign noted in a statement.
Mr. Trump has promised tough action in the 18th District before. During his 2016 campaign, he visited Monessen and pledged to go after China for alleged currency manipulation. As president, however, he abandoned that claim, and the White House is said to be divided between free-trade advocates and those who want tariffs to shield domestic manufacturing from foreign competition.
Steel imports actually rose through much of 2017, even as Mr. Trump’s Commerce Department undertook a socalled Section 232 review to determine whether imports threatened domestic security.
“We do need relief in those industries,” said Tim Waters, political director for the United Steelworkers. “But it’s an American issue, not a political issue. People understand this is a race between Conor Lamb and Rick Saccone, not between Conor Lamb and Donald Trump. I think it will be a close race, but I don’t think this will be a determining factor.”
Mr. Saccone has often been at odds with organized labor on issues such as paying a “prevailing wage” on infrastructure projects, and union leaders, at least, are bent on defeating him.
Mr. Trump, however, did win praise from the AFLCIO.
“We applaud the administration’s efforts today to fix this problem,” the union said in a statement Thursday. “This is a great first step toward addressing trade cheating, and we will continue to work with the administration on rewriting trade rules to benefit working people.”
Somewhat more grudging was U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Dpa., who has long advocated protecting domestic manufacturing from foreign competition.
“I commend the president for announcing his intent to take action to protect our steelworkers from countries, like China, that cheat on trade,” Mr. Casey said in a statement. “It has taken the administration far too long, but [Thursday’s] announcement of an intention to act next week is a welcome step. When countries cheat on trade, Pennsylvania workers lose.”