After tens of thousands of dockworkers walked off the job at midnight, the Biden administration is confronting the complicated politics – and limited toolkit – of a work stoppage in the home stretch of a critical election season in which the economy has taken center stage.

The strike by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) union has blocked goods from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, a disruption that analysts warn will cost the economy billions of dollars a day.