Chris Gibbs, a cattle rancher in rural Ohio, says he has been in deficit for nearly three years.
Keren Carrion/NPR
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Keren Carrion/NPR
At the Athens, Ohio, weekday farmers’ market, colorful vegetables are displayed for customers to purchase, community members interact with each other and with vendors. It feels like most of the people there know each other on a personal level.
For a small town like Athens, the farmers market is a gathering place.
“Our Saturday markets are at capacity,” said Paige Walters, promotions manager for the Athens Farmers Market.
Athens, Ohio is home to Ohio University. The city is, like many university towns, rather liberal. But that’s not the case in most of the region’s Appalachian communities.
Walters noted that this year, for the first time in a long time, the Athens County Republican Party set up a table at the market.
“I think that’s a testament to the current political climate — that it’s quite competitive,” she said.
Despite its past as a swing state, Ohio is now considered reliably Republican. This election is a little different. With tight races for governor and U.S. Senate, Democrats have a chance to win statewide.
But if Democrats want to win, they need to capture voters who voted for Republicans in the past. This includes Ohio’s rural voter base, which historically leans conservative.
While rural voters across the country have voted red in the past (they supported Trump by 40 points in 2024), a recent poll showed that his approval rating in rural America has fallen dramatically due to high inflation, tariffs and the war in Iran.
Democrats are trying to gain ground in unexpected areas. That’s especially true in the competitive Senate showdown between Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican nominee, and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, as both candidates invest in outreach to rural areas of the state.
“There are a lot of people in rural Ohio who are not happy, whether it’s gas prices, diesel prices, tariffs, the war,” Athens’ Matthew White told NPR at the farmers’ market.
Affordability in mind
Multi-colored peppers, onions and squash line the table at the Cowdery Farms stand. While the weekday market generally has slower foot traffic, farmer Larry Cowdery sold a good amount of produce.
He owns a small vegetable farm along the Ohio River in Long Bottom. There are two big concerns that concern Cowdrey. The first is the cost of health care.
“The big problem we face is that since we’re self-employed, we have to find health insurance somewhere,” he told NPR. “It’s going to cost a lot more next year.”
Health care premiums in the Affordable Care Act marketplace are expected to rise about 15 percent in Ohio, in part because of expiration of federal subsidies. Republicans, including Husted, voted to eliminate subsidies under the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill.” As a result of sticker shock, Ohio saw the largest decline – tied with Oklahoma for the most in the country – in the number of people registered in the market last year, with registrations falling by almost 33%.
Cowdery’s second concern is the survival of his multi-generational family farm. It becomes too expensive to operate. He said the cost of electricity and gasoline was a big factor. Additionally, he depends on fertilizers to grow his vegetables.
“I’m not convinced we’ll be able to get fertilizer next year,” Cowdery said.
It’s because of the war in Iran. Most of the nitrogen used in fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel in the Middle East controlled by Iran. Cross-strait travel has been unstable.
Because of health care and business challenges, Cowdery doesn’t want to vote Republican this year. He added that he was unhappy with the Republican-led Ohio legislature in recent years and that he also didn’t like Husted.
“I don’t trust Jon Husted at all. I think he’s a crook,” Cowdery said.
Dean Ferrell is at the farmers market, talking to people and moving around the market. The 62-year-old, who has always lived in Athens, said the cost of gas, utilities and groceries had become expensive. He had to reduce his purchases of certain foods because he could not afford them.
“I mean, who knew you’d pay ten dollars a pound for ground beef? That used to be the price of filet mignon, not ground beef,” he said.
Ferrell tried to see the bright side of his financial reality. Since he’s older, Ferrell said he doesn’t eat as much as he used to, which helps him save money. He added that he wished politicians could spend “a week or two living like me.”
“Their attitude would be very different. I mean, I have to save money wherever I can, buy discounted and sale items,” Ferrell said. “There are very few things I pay full price for. You have to do it to survive.”
Ferrell considers himself an independent. Although he has not yet decided who will vote for Senate, Ferrell said he is leaning toward Husted. He doesn’t like the direction the Democratic Party is going.
“The far left has basically hijacked the Democratic Party,” he said.
A farmer’s frustration
On a cool fall day in rural central Ohio, farmer Chris Gibbs climbs into his John Deere all-terrain utility vehicle and sets out to survey his land.
“It all started in 1983, alone, with $2,500, a van and a two-year-old daughter,” Gibbs said with a laugh. “So we built up to 560 acres.”
Gibbs, a first-generation farmer in Shelby County, grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa hay and has a few dozen cows.
Farming is a tough industry, even at the best of times. Farms are subject to market fluctuations, domestic politics, international relations and Mother Nature. Addressing high fuel and fertilizer prices, as well as Trump’s tariffs, makes the cost of production exceed the profit.
Sitting in his massive combine harvesting corn and soybeans, Gibbs said the consumption of diesel fuel to run the machines increased 50 percent under the Trump administration and the war in Iran. He fills the combine about seven times during the harvest season.
“I think about 150 gallons at $7 is $1,000, and it will last a day and a half,” Gibbs said. “That would be $7,000 worth of diesel fuel.”
Politically, farmers tend to vote Republican. Gibbs was one of those Republicans at one point. In a previous life, he was chairman of the Shelby County Republicans. He voted for Trump in 2016.
“I’m definitely looking at buyer’s remorse,” Gibbs said of voting for Trump.
Gibbs couldn’t support Trump’s character, his persona on the world stage or the punitive tariffs that he said hurt “the soft underbelly of the United States of America,” referring to agriculture. He distanced himself from Trump in 2018.
Today, in 2026, Gibbs is chair of the Ohio Democratic Party’s rural caucus and he wants to return Democrat Sherrod Brown to the Senate.
Brown, Gibbs argued, has the experience to represent rural Ohioans at the federal level.
“We’re going to get Sherrod Brown across the finish line. I have every confidence in that,” Gibbs said.
No career politicians
At a Republican Party event in Guysville, Melissa Jant said she doesn’t want a career politician representing her in Congress and that’s exactly what she sees in Brown.
“I absolutely don’t want Sherrod Brown back there. He was there for 30 years. We saw the policies he put in place. He ran the country. He ran Ohio. We just need some new blood there,” she told NPR.
His dissatisfaction with Brown isn’t just because he’s a Democrat. Some voters consider him establishment, even though he is no longer a lawmaker.
Jimmy Williams of Monroe County feels the same way. He said Brown had been rejected and should not try to return to his old stomping grounds. Instead, Williams views Husted as the anti-establishment candidate, despite being a sitting senator.
“He’s a first-term senator there, and he hasn’t even been there long enough to do everything they say on TV,” Williams said of the ads aimed at Husted. “And people need to be smart enough to look into that.”
Washington County’s Bob Rouch told NPR he’s optimistic that Ohio will remain Republican. He thinks Trump has done a lot of good for the county and “it’s Ohio’s responsibility to follow that.” If Democrats take control, Rouch believes they will do nothing but target Trump.
“We’re going to have these damn investigations and impeachment attempts and all the bullshit that we’ve been through,” he said, referring to the last time Democrats controlled Congress while Trump was president.
Williams argued that the current goal was to preserve Republican control of Congress.
“America is in danger,” Williams said.
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