Rural MAHA followers say Trump hasn't improved health of their
communities, an AP-KFF poll finds
[September 30, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON, SARAH JANE TRIBBLE and LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — About half of rural voters identify with Make America
Healthy Again, a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump
administration, but most said President Donald Trump’s healthcare
policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll
from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF.
About 8 in 10 rural voters — an important voting bloc for Trump and
fellow Republicans — said the Trump administration’s policies have had a
negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live.
Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national
survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.
The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump
administration’s MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America’s
perception of their reach and effectiveness.
Iowa pastor Mike Jager, 58, is a registered Republican and considers
himself part of the MAHA movement. The Trump administration’s health
policies have had “minimal” impact on the health of his community, Jager
said, but he added that Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
is moving the needle “in the right direction.”
“It’s a beginning,” Jager said. “It’s a big ship to try and turn around
and course-correct.”
Kennedy has used the MAHA label to support various agendas, including
abandoning long-standing vaccine guidance, researching ultraprocessed
foods and investing in regenerative agriculture.
Jager lives in Sumner, Iowa, “less than a quarter mile from where the
corn ends and the city begins.” He’s seen family members and neighbors
develop diseases that he believes resulted in part from exposure to
agricultural chemicals and consumption of unhealthy, processed foods.
In the June Republican primary for governor, Jager voted for Zach Lahn,
a businessman and farmer who ran on a MAHA platform and beat out
Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra. He plans to vote for him again in
November.
Many rural voters are prioritizing health issues
About two-thirds of rural voters who support MAHA said it’s “extremely”
or “very” important to them to vote for a candidate who does, too, while
only 4 in 10 rural voters overall said the same.
Trump sought to seize on MAHA support during his campaign for another
term two years ago. Now, amid tight midterm races, Kennedy has
campaigned to galvanize the movement’s support. In May, he attended a
MAHA bill signing with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, and in August,
he went fishing with Lahn, posting about it on social media.
Yet the survey indicates voters are noticing “this weird split in the
Trump administration” between what Kennedy messages and what Trump says
and does, said David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa
State University.
In Iowa, concerns about what’s causing rising cancer rates are “a big
deal,” he said. For many people who identify with MAHA, being healthy
includes taking on corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies
that they think cause cancer, he added.
In the poll, views on healthcare access and costs largely diverged along
party lines. Most Democratic and independent voters said the Trump
administration’s healthcare policies have had a negative impact on their
healthcare costs and the health and well-being of people in their
communities. Republicans were likelier to say there hasn’t been an
impact.
Talking on the phone from her 200-acre farm in Carroll County, Iowa,
71-year-old Donna Klocke said that her husband had died from cancer and
that she has neighbors who also have cancer.
“It’s just very prevalent,” Klocke said. “We’re in a farming community.
We use chemicals and pesticides and all kinds of things that aren’t
necessarily good for us.”
Klocke, a Democrat, said the MAHA movement is a good idea because she
cares about being healthy, but she does not consider herself part of it
and will not be voting for a candidate who represents the movement.
Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist before entering politics and
has sent mixed messages to Americans about getting the measles vaccine,
scares her.
“Measles are coming back and polio,” Klocke said. “It’s the measles that
really gets me. It’s like, do you not understand how dangerous it is?”
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This photo provided by Kathryn Gamble shows Donna Klocke posing for
a photo in Carroll County, Iowa, Sept. 27, 2026. (Kathyrn Gamble via
AP)
 Survey reflects angst over
healthcare
Nearly half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough
doctors or other healthcare providers, and even more said there
aren’t enough mental health workers specifically. The share of rural
voters who said their community does not have enough hospitals
increased to 35% from 21% in a similar question asked in a KFF-Washington
Post survey in 2017.
And as with the general population, healthcare, gas and grocery
costs are top pain points. At least 6 in 10 rural voters said they
were worried about healthcare costs.
The level of worry varied based on coverage, with rural voters
enrolled in employer plans or Medicare less likely to be worried.
The survey found that 80% of working-age rural voters on Medicaid
were very or somewhat worried about healthcare costs. Last year,
Republicans passed a tax and spending bill that cut over $900
billion in projected Medicaid spending over a decade and mandated
new eligibility requirements.
In the tiny community of Lipan, Texas, west of Dallas, Kim Solis and
her husband have a handyman-and-home-remodel business and get their
insurance on the marketplace. Since Trump returned to office, their
premium payment jumped from zero to $166 a month. Their copays went
up, and their deductibles each increased by $2,000.
Solis, 62, said she worries what will happen if they get a big
medical bill.
“Certainly, we’d be in a world of hurt trying to take money out of
savings or getting it out of our 401(k) just to be able to do
something about it,” she said.
Most MAHA voters are also MAGA — but not all
Like the general population, rural voters said they trust their own
doctors and healthcare providers for health information over
government agencies or officials, according to the poll.
Trust in Kennedy and Trump fell largely along partisan lines. About
10% of rural Democratic voters reported having a “great deal” or
“fair amount” of trust in Kennedy, compared with 74% of rural
Republican voters. About 5% of rural Democrats and 69% of rural
Republicans said they trust Trump a “great deal” or “fair amount”
for reliable health information.
While Make America Great Again and MAHA identities are “linked in a
lot of ways,” the rising costs of healthcare and groceries pose a
challenge for those committed to the MAHA principles that Kennedy
promotes, said Peterson, the Iowa State professor.
Buying healthy food “becomes, ‘I can’t afford to do that because of
Trump’s policies,’” he said.
In Stamping Ground, Kentucky, Alma Johnson, 65, works night security
at a horse farm.
Johnson voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and said she “pretty
much” likes how Trump is running the country. But she said she is
not a MAGA devotee, preferring to “think for myself.”
MAHA, however, is an easy sell for Johnson because, she said, she
doesn’t think people should be able to buy junk food in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Still, she said she hasn’t seen much impact from the Trump
administration’s healthcare policies, including the new food
pyramid.
“It takes a long time to change people, their habits, their thoughts
or the things they do,” Johnson said.
___
The poll of 2,241 U.S. adults registered to vote in rural areas of
the country was conducted Aug. 12-24, 2026, using a sample drawn
from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel. The margin of
sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage
points. In collaboration with AP, KFF researchers worked to design
the survey sample and questionnaire, analyze and report findings.
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