TOLEDO, Ohio — Republican congressional candidate Derek Merrin has made bringing manufacturing jobs back to Ohio a centerpiece of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur. But while Merrin promises to put American workers first, his campaign has been distributing T-shirts manufactured in Bangladesh, according to an investigation by Spectrum News 1.
The October 9 report by journalist Harri Leigh documented a country-of-origin label on a campaign shirt distributed to volunteers over the summer. The shirt was manufactured by Gildan, a Canadian apparel company with factories around the world, including in Bangladesh. The findings put Merrin’s own campaign spending practices at odds with a central theme of his pitch to working-class voters in Northwest Ohio.
Merrin, a former Ohio state representative seeking a rematch against Kaptur in the November 3 election, has repeatedly blamed the longtime congresswoman for the decline of American manufacturing. His campaign has distributed mailers promising good jobs, larger paychecks and products made in Ohio, according to Spectrum.
But when Spectrum confronted Merrin about the foreign-made shirts and asked what standards candidates who promote American manufacturing should apply to their own campaigns, he did not directly answer. Instead, he accused Kaptur of favoring foreign businesses.
“Marcy Kaptur is pro-China and pro-Mexico,” Merrin said, according to Spectrum.
The accusation is particularly notable given Kaptur’s documented record of opposing major trade agreements with both countries.
Kaptur opposed landmark trade agreements with China and Mexico
Merrin’s suggestion that Kaptur favors China and Mexico omits two consequential votes from her congressional record. On November 17, 1993, Kaptur voted against the legislation implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated many trade barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada. The legislation passed the House 234-200.
On May 24, 2000, Kaptur also voted against legislation establishing permanent normal trade relations with China. That measure passed 237-197, with support from 164 Republicans and 73 Democrats.
Both votes came during major national debates over whether expanded international trade would benefit American consumers and businesses at the expense of domestic manufacturing employment. Kaptur opposed the agreements despite support for them from prominent figures in her own party.
Those votes do not settle every question about Kaptur’s decades-long trade record, but they provide significant context missing from Merrin’s accusation. The congresswoman opposed two of the most consequential trade measures involving the very countries he invoked when questioned about his campaign’s foreign-made merchandise.
Kaptur has also publicly supported domestic purchasing requirements for federal defense contracts. Her congressional office identifies Buy America provisions as a means of helping Northern Ohio manufacturers, including tool-and-die companies, foundries and machine shops, compete for federal business.
Campaign shirts linked to manufacturer with labor controversies
The merchandise identified by Spectrum was made by Gildan, a major international apparel manufacturer that has faced scrutiny from labor-rights organizations over conditions in its manufacturing and supplier operations.
A 2024 investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium identified Gildan among the principal buyers from APS El Salvador, a garment factory that closed in 2022 without paying workers approximately $1.9 million in wages, severance and other benefits. The organization reported recovering $1.35 million from buyers to compensate affected workers, while continuing efforts to secure the remaining funds.
Spectrum also reported allegations concerning working conditions at facilities in Honduras and Haiti, as well as protests in Bangladesh following the October 2025 death of a pregnant Gildan employee who workers alleged had been denied medical leave and assistance. Those allegations concern the company’s broader operations; Spectrum did not establish that the particular factory producing Merrin’s shirts was involved in those incidents.
Separately, on October 8, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Gildan and a wholesale distributor had amended a contract provision restricting discounts available to competing distributors. The agency closed its price-discrimination investigation following the change. Gildan said it had not admitted wrongdoing or paid a monetary penalty.
The Spectrum investigation does not establish who selected the shirts for Merrin’s campaign, how many were distributed or where campaign graphics were printed onto them. The country-of-origin label does establish that at least some of the shirts distributed to volunteers were manufactured outside the United States.
Kaptur campaign says its shirts are American-made
The two campaigns have taken different approaches to their merchandise, according to the same Spectrum investigation.
Kaptur’s campaign told the outlet that its T-shirts were manufactured by Royal Apparel, a U.S. company with production facilities in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Spectrum obtained one of the campaign’s shirts and confirmed that its label identified it as made in the United States using imported yarns.
Kaptur emphasized the importance of domestic production in her interview with Spectrum, saying the country needs to make products rather than merely purchase them.
The distinction is especially relevant in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, where manufacturing employment and the consequences of overseas production have been recurring political issues. Merrin has made the loss of industrial jobs a central criticism of Kaptur’s tenure, while Kaptur has spent much of her congressional career advocating for domestic manufacturing and trade protections.
The candidates are facing each other for the second consecutive election. According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s official results, Kaptur defeated Merrin by just 2,382 votes in 2024, receiving 181,098 votes to Merrin’s 178,716. Libertarian Tom Pruss received another 15,381 votes. The 2026 rematch will take place under congressional district boundaries adopted in 2025.
As the November 3 election approaches, Merrin has offered no direct explanation in the Spectrum interview for why a campaign built partly around bringing manufacturing back to the United States distributed apparel manufactured in Bangladesh. The original investigation did, however, establish a concrete difference in how the two campaigns sourced at least some of their merchandise.
