A stunning new poll reveals that most rural voters feel the Trump administration’s policies have had either a negative effect or no impact at all on the health of their communities.
Rural voters were a crucial voting bloc for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, with nearly seven in ten casting their vote for him.
About half of rural voters support the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but a survey by The Associated Press and KFF found that 68 percent of MAHA supporters believe the administration’s policies have either worsened or had no effect on their communities.
Rural voters were more than twice as likely to say the Trump administration’s health care policies have worsened costs and access to care in their communities than to say they have improved them. Many are frustrated with both political parties on the issue, saying they trust neither to address health care costs.
More than half of respondents said they were worried about health care costs, and many said their communities don’t have enough providers.
As the midterms approach, health care is taking center stage in races like Iowa, where soaring cancer rates have plagued the population.
Donna Klocke, 71, an Iowa resident who identifies as a Democrat and lost her husband to cancer, said, “It’s just very prevalent. We’re in a farming community. We use chemicals and pesticides and all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily good for us.”
One Iowa pastor, Mike Jager, 58, a Republican and MAHA supporter, said the Trump administration’s health policies have done little to affect health in his community, but he still thinks RFK Jr. is moving things “in the right direction.”
Trump policies are also hindering the MAHA movement, however.
David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University, said buying healthy food “becomes, ‘I can’t afford to do that because of Trump’s policies.’”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster defended Trump’s policies.
“President Trump enacted the largest ever investment in rural health care when he signed the landmark Working Families Tax Cuts Act into law. The Rural Health Transformation Program it created is currently investing billions of dollars to transform rural health access and actually meet the unique needs of these communities instead of simply pouring money into the failed approaches of the past,” she wrote. “President Trump’s decisive and historic actions to secure the Most Favored Nations drug pricing has drastically lowered the cost of drugs and improved access to care for millions of hardworking Americans.”
