Republicans’ economic failures and broken promises have cost them support among rural communities. Only about 4 in 10 rural voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and they know Republicans have no plan to address the cost of living crisis.
Polling shows rural voters’ disappointment and economic concerns:
- 67% are “very or somewhat” worried about being able to afford gasoline
- 66% are “very or somewhat” worried about being able to afford healthcare
- 60% are “very or somewhat” worried about being able to afford food
- Only 17% of the voters said the Trump administration’s health care policies have had a “positive impact” on their healthcare costs
The DCCC is committed to ensuring rural communities are put first, and we’ve been working to earn their support since day one through our rural engagement program, as part of the Our Power, Our Country program. The DCCC has made six-figure investments targeting rural voters in NC-11, OH-09, NM-02, IA-03, KY-06, and MT-01 to engage rural communities left behind by Republicans. Additional digital ad campaigns have highlighted the issues hurting rural America, including rural hospital closures and foreign beef imports undermining farmers and ranchers.
Read the headlines:
New York Times: Across Farm Country, Economic Discontent Strains Republican Coalition
- Economic anxieties are testing the loyalty of rural voters to the Republican Party, expanding the electoral battlefield into some of the most traditionally conservative districts across the nation and raising Democratic hopes.
- For a decade, farmers and ranchers have been a core part of President Trump’s coalition, voting for him by double-digit margins in all three of his presidential races. But as the impact of his tariffs and the war in Iran fuel discontent in agricultural communities across the country, the bond between the president and rural voters is beginning to fray.
- The anger is palpable from the soybean farms in Mississippi to the cattle spreads in Kansas. Ranchers are seething over the administration’s decision to drop import tariffs on foreign beef. Farmers are fuming about the higher costs of tractors, fertilizer and fuel. And Republican candidates are on the defensive in places their party has not lost in a generation.
- “There has always been volatility, but the vibe is that there is a lot of induced volatility into the system that we didn’t have 10 or 20 years ago,” said Allen Shafer, a fifth-generation grain farmer in central Kansas, who has been registered with both parties over his lifetime. “I don’t hear the excitement from Republicans or Trumpsters that historically I have.”
- “There’s just a lot of frustration,” said Shannon Butler, who has been forced to raise prices at her small feed store in eastern Colorado. “Small farmers and small homesteaders and small ranchers are closing up doors, selling their animals. They can’t afford to keep paying the prices that they’re at.”
Politico: The GOP’s harvest of discontent
- Farmers angry over high diesel prices and spiking fertilizer costs who voted thrice for Donald Trump are questioning their allegiance not only to him — but the GOP.
- “Farmers are patient people by nature, but patience isn’t an economic policy,” veteran GOP strategist Ron Bonjean told Playbook.
- “Most of farm country out here is definitely Republican, but I don’t think it’s going to be for a whole lot longer if it doesn’t change,” said Iowa farmer Lance Lillibridge, an informal ag adviser to Iowa GOP Senate nominee Ashley Hinson.
- An April Farm Journal survey found 39% of farmers were considering voting for the other party in November, sitting out the midterms or undecided. And that poll skewed conservative — only 6% said they typically vote Democrat.
- Farmers who spoke to Playbook said they’re starting to feel like they only matter to Republicans for a few weeks every two years.
- Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, which has endorsed a slate of 18 Democrats and two Republicans this year, said many members say “they’re on the brink of a crisis.”
Axios: The most pressing midterm issues for rural voters
- Cost of living and health care costs top the list of issues rural voters want 2026 midterm candidates to address, according to a new AP/KFF poll.
- The big picture: Ahead of the midterms, rural voters rank pocketbook concerns above immigration, the conflict with Iran and several major domestic policy debates.
- By the numbers: 69% of rural voters said it is ‘extremely important’ for candidates to talk about the cost of living, followed by health care costs (56%) and fraud in government programs (54%).
AP: Trump dominated rural America. Iowa is testing whether Democrats can win them back
- Standing in the doorway of his home near the corn and soybean fields that blanket this stretch of northeast Iowa, Dave Roethler doesn’t know what happened to the Donald Trump he supported during his first presidency.
- “I think he has delusions of grandeur,” said Roethler, who plans to support Democrats next month in a state that has become a midterm battleground after Trump carried it by 13 percentage points two years ago. The president will return to Iowa twice before the election to rally supporters.
- With tariffs disrupting the agricultural economy and the war in Iran driving up gas prices — diesel surpasses $6 a gallon in Iowa — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swung through the district to ask voters to keep his fragile majority in place.
- The Republican erosion was evident about 45 miles north in New Hampton. A few houses away from Roethler, 69-year-old Bill Stonecypher voted for Trump in 2016, expecting him to apply his business acumen to governing. Now Stonecypher plans to vote for every Democrat on the ballot for the first time in his life.
- “He lied to us,” she said. “I’m looking more at Democrats for everything.”
Washington Examiner: GOP works to convince rural voters to stick with them amid high cost of living
- Republicans are downplaying the possibility that Democrats could win over enough rural voters to flip the House and Senate in the midterm election cycle.
- President Donald Trump won roughly 7 in 10 rural voters in 2024, but two years later, discontent over his tariff policies, the Iran war, and the high cost of living has the GOP worried such voters could stay home on Election Day or defect to Democrats.
- But farmers have been hit particularly hard by the fallout from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and higher diesel prices.
- “The rural parts of Iowa, which are many, are clearly up for grabs, and the state is up for grabs,” said former Iowa Republican Party Chairman David Oman.
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