HEBRON, Ky. — Senator Mitch McConnell joined local business owners in Northern Kentucky Thursday to discuss tariffs, calling for President Donald Trump to withdraw what McConnell referred to as "a tax on everybody."
McConnell compared the tariffs to the Tariff Act of 1930. The Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, signed by President Herbert Hoover raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods during the start of the Great Depression. The U.S. Senate's website says the legislation is "among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history," deepening the worldwide depression instead of helping the U.S.
'We've seen this in history unfold in a way that did not work for us or for other countries," McConnell said.
Kentucky's longest-serving senator said that at the end of the day, it's local consumers who are most impacted. Ashlie Watts, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said local businesses are also in a state of paralysis because of the uncertainty around tariffs.
"These policies have the potential to be devastating to Kentucky businesses and Kentucky families ... a trade war is not the way to economic prosperity," Watts said.
Senator McConnell calls tariffs “a tax on everybody” and compares what we’re seeing now to a 1930’s era tariff effort that many economists say worsened The Great Depression.
— Sean DeLancey (@SeanDeLanceyTV) April 24, 2025
Everyone here is in opposition to tariffs and calling for President Trump to withdraw them.@WCPO pic.twitter.com/AH3hTSTSwq
McConnell said a study shows Kentucky is the state most dependent on exports and third-most dependent on imports per the state's gross domestic product, making residents particularly vulnerable to tariffs.
Both McConnell and Watts spoke specifically about how tariffs would impact Kentucky's bourbon industry, with the commonwealth making 95% of the bourbon sold. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has also spoken out against the tariffs, citing the impact of previous tariffs on the bourbon industry.
"We saw tens — if not hundreds — of millions of millions of dollars of impact on exports that the bourbon industry is just recovering from," Beshear said during a Jan. 16 press conference. "A state, again, that voted for Trump by 30 points will get hit incredibly hard."
But it's not just the bourbon industry that will see the effects. Rick Ross, CEO of Galerie Candys and Gifts in Hebron, said the tariffs have hurt small businesses across the state when it comes to expanding, planning and purchasing.
"There's a lot of small businesses that simply won't survive this," Ross said.
Richard Field, president of Post Glover Resistors in Erlanger, said they take orders two years out with firm pricing that can't be adjusted. Tariffs on imported goods is making things pricier now than when he sold it, forcing his business to deal with the difference.
Field said his business is at a stand still, and he's asking the government to reconsider tariffs completely.
Watts noted that in addition to McConnell, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has expressed its opposition against tariffs with Beshear and Senator Rand Paul, which "must mean that we're on the right path."
