Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN) is facing off against a Republican businessman in the midterm election who has attacked Donnelly because Donelly's brother runs a family business that has a facility in Mexico, but his challenger his importing his own products from China.
The Associated Press did a deep dive on Promaxx Automotive, the company owned by Donnelly's challenger Mike Braun, and they found that many if not all of his products are sourced from China.
To be sure, the Associated Press actually ordered some of Braun's products to verify that they were "Made in China."
To do so, the AP purchased from Amazon one of Braun's brand of winches, a device used to pull stuck 4x4 vehicles out of the mud. The box that arrived was labeled "Made in China" in several places on the accessory and packaging.
Numerous other products, including running boards and a specialized Jeep hood, were similarly listed as manufactured in China on websites that retail Promaxx goods, including Amazon, CARiD and eBay.
The AP also used unique UPC codes assigned to more than 50 Promaxx products to determine which suppliers Braun uses. That information was compared with data maintained by Panjiva, a website that tracks global trade, to determine where those companies procured their goods.
The Associated Press found that goods Braun's company buys from several different domestic suppliers actually sourced the products from China to sell them here.
Now, this is normal behavior. This is a very illustrative example of Americans importing more than we export in our service-based economy that relies on cheap imports and consumption. Virtually everyone reading this has purchased something from a domestic company that actually imported it from China or some other country.
What's not normal, or at least not appropriate, is attacking your opponent because their family does business overseas while you personally source your products from overseas.
It's the hypocrisy.
When the two congressmen [Braun] was running against in the Republican primary, Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, went after him for his companies' practices, Braun counterattacked.
In one ad he ran during the primary, he accused Donnelly, Messer and Rokita of supporting, or benefiting from, trade policies that put "Mexico before Muncie" and "Beijing before Bloomington."
Trump himself is guilty of this as well, of course. The Trump family brands have long imported their products from China and Trump is even sourcing his 2020 campaign flags from China.