Tariffs have been an ongoing and controversial part of President Donald Trump’s first two years back in office.
Higher costs and questions over the constitutionality of those tariffs have led to uncertainty for Washington consumers, businesses and farmers. Among those affected are voters in Washington’s 1st Congressional District, who are selecting their representative this election.
The district covers parts of Snohomish and King counties. Incumbent Democrat Suzan DelBene said the trade war that started almost as soon as Trump took office has hit Washington farmers hard.
“Retaliation against the trade policy from this administration has had a great impact, either raising prices making it harder or harder to complete or not being able to sell goods at all,” DelBene said.
Cross-border commerce and travel between Washington and Canada has also been strained over the past two years, according to studies by Western Washington University.
DelBene, who is seeking an eighth term in Congress, said if Democrats are successful in recapturing control of the U.S. House, they will focus on wrestling back control of trade policy.
“This is a place where congress has the say,” DelBene said. “So if someone wants to make a case for a tariff, they have to bring it to congress and congress has to vote and decide.”
'Uplift us in the long run'
DelBene’s Republican challenger is Mary Silva, who said higher prices from tariffs represent a short-term problem
“When you keep the long-term gains in mind, where you can bring back American ingenuity and keep people spending money on American products, it’s going to uplift us in the long run,” Silva said.
But just how much time the "long run" will take, she said, she doesn't know.
Silva is an audiologist from Everett. She has run for Congress before, but lost in the primary. This time, she advanced to the November ballot.
Silva said she decided to challenge DelBene mainly to raise concerns about what she describes as security vulnerabilities with big U.S. tech companies when they outsource computer coding overseas.
“If we don’t address that, we lose our sovereignty and then we don’t have the ability to fight for better prices at the gas pump, we don’t have the levering capacity to fight for better and lower cost,” Silva said.
That is why she is calling for more oversight of the tech industry and hoping her big picture message will resonate with voters.
Voting ends at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3rd.
