Rural voters, who have long been the core base of the Republican Party, are expressing major dissatisfaction with the current state of the U.S. economy, which has been hurt by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his illegal war with Iran.
Although it is unclear whether rural voters are ready to abandon the Republican Party to support the Democrats, a recent focus group showed that they appear receptive to populist economic appeals.
According to a Sunday report from CNN, Republican operatives were recently “surprised” when speaking with rural voters who blamed “billionaires” and “corrupt politicians” for the country’s economic woes.
These operatives were surprised, CNN wrote, because they had “never seen government corruption emerge as a major issue for so many Republican voters in congressional races.”
This comes as Republicans across the country increasingly rely on contributions from billionaires, and particularly SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has contributed at least $276 million to Republican groups and his own super political action committee (PAC) since July alone.
Democrat Sam Forstag, who is pitching a populist economic pitch during his campaign in Montana’s 1st Congressional District, told CNN that voters’ concerns about corruption are now “all on display,” and he said many of Trump’s current political problems stem from his broken promises to fix a rigged system.
“Trump told everyone one truth,” Forstag said. “He said the system was broken…and unfortunately it turned out he was lying about all the ways they were going to fix these problems.”
Forstag’s comments were echoed by Arthur Ray Lambert, a Colorado horse trainer, who explained his disappointment with Trump in an interview published Sunday by The New York Times.
“We thought the president was going to come with his team and make things right,” Lambert said. “And at first he looked good. But now, I hate to say it, but I think it’s time for him and his team to get out of there and someone else to come in.”
Joseph Kennedy, a Colorado cattle and sheep rancher, told the Times he felt “stunned” after voting for Trump and would not participate in the next election.
“I’m done with politics,” Kennedy said. “I gave up.”
Journalist Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, in an article published by The Atlantic last week, wrote that residents she spoke with recently in rural Arizona are both disappointed by Trump’s economy and disgusted by political corruption.
“Nearly all of them told me they were angry at Trump’s decisions to start a war and spend hundreds of millions of dollars beautifying a capital they will never see,” Sanchez wrote. “They deplored the corruption they see as endemic in government and big business, and denounced billionaires, whom they see as capitalizing on their suffering.”
A Fox News poll released last week found that 60% of voters say they are “extremely concerned” about government corruption, which is higher than the 58% who are extremely concerned about inflation and the 50% who are extremely concerned about gas prices.
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