Kentucky’s Republican senators have set themselves apart as top conservative voices expressing opposition to President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements.
Sen. Rand Paul has spoken frequently on the airwaves and the Senate floor in recent months, decrying what he calls an “abuse of executive power.”
“I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me, and have a check and balance on power,” Paul said in the Senate during an April vote to push back on Canadian tariffs. “One person can make a mistake. And guess what? Tariffs are a terrible mistake.”
Paul and Sen. Mitch McConnell have joined Democrats to push back against Trump’s tariff measures. Widespread, blanket tariffs are new to the mainstream Republican party, which previously championed free and unfettered trade. Trump’s shift towards tariff policies creates some alignment between former party leaders like McConnell and the more libertarian-leaning Republicans who are occasional party outsiders on some issues.
Paul and McConnell have joined forces with a couple other Senate Republicans to vote for resolutions aimed at stopping sweeping tariffs. In early April, four Senate Republicans — including Kentucky’s two senators — voted to end the national emergency that created the Canadian tariffs. Canadian goods entering the U.S. are currently levied a 25% tariff, excluding energy products and a few other goods.
McConnell and Paul have found voting partners in Republicans like Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, both of whom are moderate Republicans. In a summit in Alaska last month, Murkowski said, “We are all afraid,” referring to the threat of political retribution for opposing Trump policies.
More recently, another resolution lost in a tie vote while McConnell was absent. Paul was the lone Republican co-sponsor on the resolution to end the national emergency used to impose global tariffs — although two other Republicans joined him in voting for it. In a statement to Kentucky Public Radio, a spokesperson for McConnell said he was “under the weather” and could not attend the vote, but has consistently opposed tariffs otherwise.
Paul says he opposes the misuse of emergency powers — besides taking issue with tariffs as an economic tool. McConnell has frequently spoken out against trade wars, which he says are not in Americans’ best interests.
“As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most,” McConnell posted on social media. “With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices. That includes what we do on trade.”
Kentucky overwhelmingly voted for Trump by a more than 30 point margin, and certainly not all of the state’s congressional delegation is opposed to his hallmark economic policy. Representative Andy Barr, a Lexington-area Republican who announced he would run for McConnell’s Senate seat next year, has expressed his unflinching support for Trump’s tariffs.
“We need the turbulence because in the long run, we’re gonna have access to markets. And we’re gonna have less disruption, and we’re gonna have more free trade,” Barr said at Churchill Downs on Oaks Day to WHAS11. “Thank goodness he’s doing it because it gives us a chance to level the playing field.”
Many of the candidates in the emerging Senate primary are already vying for Trump’s endorsement. Political watchers believe the endorsement could be the deciding factor in the Republican primary.
Political Science Professor Anne Cizmar of Eastern Kentucky University says the state — and the region — have a history of congressional members who aren’t afraid to be party outsiders.
“I do think you see this as a regional story in several different kinds of neighboring states and areas where you might have party members who are in Congress who are kind of toeing the party line,” Cizmar said.
That sort of moniker may have always been applicable to libertarian-leaning politicians like Paul and Representative Thomas Massie, but before the Trump political wave, it wouldn’t have normally applied to former party leaders like McConnell. But Cizmar says it's not surprising to see McConnell taking up this mantle, especially on his way out of office.
“When you think about the traditional tent pole of the Republican Party in economic freedom and the idea that you would have open free trade that's going back some decades for a republican party platform stance,” Cizmar said.
Caleb Ragland, the president of the American Soybean Association from Magnolia, Kentucky, said local farmers like himself will be the hardest hit by tariffs, especially with all the other factors already working against agriculture: rising prices, high interest rates and now trade wars.
He’s especially concerned about trade wars with China, which saw a major shift when a temporary deal saw levies from at least 145% to a base 30% on Chinese goods entering the U.S. Chinese levies will fall from 125% to 10% on American goods. China is one of the major exporters of American soybeans, and Ragland said farmers need to know politicians understand the importance of global trade for them.
“Our senators, while both, at times, have very differing political opinions, but I was very glad to see them come together on this issue and to have our backs as farmers,” Ragland said.
In farming, margins are often slim and many small farmers can’t handle the political headwinds blowing against them too, Ragland said.
“Farm economy is in a difficult place, and we don't have a lot of room for error,” Ragland said.
Charles Aull, the vice president of policy with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said tariffs and trade wars are likely to be felt first by small businesses that don’t have the bargaining power of big chains, especially those that rely on specific overseas goods.
“At the end of the day, we're talking about families, we're talking about workers. Those are the ones that are ultimately going to feel the most negative impacts of this,” Aull said.
Aull said he and the chamber are encouraging business owners to communicate with lawmakers about how tariffs are specifically affecting their businesses.
U.S. House leadership has thus far avoided a vote on tariffs via a rules committee resolution. Masie was one of few Republicans to vote against the measures. He wrote on social media, “I want Congress to assert its authority to vote on tariffs.”
Kentucky’s sole democratic representative Morgan McGarvey also opposes Trump’s tariff plan, which he calls “half-baked.” Republican Rep. James Comer told KET that tariffs could be used to help the U.S. combat illegal drugs, creating deals with other governments to take more direct action.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
