Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Carroll has identified the Jones Act as one of his main campaign platforms. 

The Jones Act requires ships that transport goods between states to have been built in the United States, and crewed by U.S. workers.  

The fact that foreign-flagged vessels “cannot freely exchange in international commerce in Hawaii” ratchets up import costs, hurting the state’s economy, Carrol argued in a message to supporters.

The Jones Act has come up before: Former Congressman Charles Djou tried to get a waiver for the act so that foreign ships could respond to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The act’s supporters argue that it protects American job interests.