In 6th District congressional race, Casten and Conforti disagree on Trump’s tariffs
While Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten and 6th District Republican challenger Niki Conforti both think targeted tariffs on foreign-made goods can be effective tools, they disagree on the effectiveness and legality of the taxes implemented by President Donald Trump.
Casten, of Downers Grove, and Conforti, of Glen Ellyn, are facing off for the second consecutive general election. They talked about American economic policy and other issues in questionnaires for the Daily Herald.
Casten, a former energy industry entrepreneur, said tariffs can be appropriate “in certain targeted, specific instances.” They can be useful, he said, if American companies are unable to compete against imported goods from a country that has lower costs because of weak labor or environmental standards, or from one that rewards dumping excess goods into the U.S. market.
In those situations, tariffs can protect U.S. businesses and force the rest of the world “to come up to our higher standards,” said Casten, who first was elected to Congress in 2018.
But that’s not what prompted the tariffs Trump implemented, Casten maintained.
Additionally, only Congress has the constitutional authority to “levy taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” Casten said. “And while Congress has in the past delegated authority to the executive branch to impose tariffs without prior congressional authorization for very specific reasons, the Trump tariffs did not rely on any of those prior authorizations.”
Conforti, an energy consultant making her third bid for Congress, supports using tariffs “to revitalize our domestic industrial base and defend American producers from predatory foreign competition,” especially Chinese imports.
Conforti said “unchecked free trade policies” have incentivized the outsourcing of critical U.S. supply chains and that the nation must transition to “fair trade frameworks” that prioritize American labor and economic security.
Trump’s tariffs, she said, are vital to stimulating industrial growth in the 6th District.
“I firmly oppose rolling back these protections,” she said, “as restoring our economic independence requires companies to build, invest, and hire right here at home.”
The 6th District includes parts of the West and Southwest suburbs in Cook and DuPage counties, as well as some of Chicago’s Southwest Side.
Conforti trounced Shorewood resident Skylar Duensing with about 82% of the vote to win the GOP nomination in March. Casten scored about 76% of the vote against Chicagoan Joey Ruzevich to win the Democratic primary.
Casten defeated Conforti by an 8-point margin in the 2024 general election. She placed third in the 2022 Republican primary for the seat.
Election Day is Nov. 3. Early voting has begun.
rlissau@dailyherald.com