“ERLANGER, Ky. -- Roberta Wolfe, a nurse from nearby Florence, Ky., cast her ballot for President Trump in 2024 because she saw him as more focused on the economy and "draining the swamp" in the federal government. But now she sees the U.S. involved in another Middle Eastern conflict, and it "scares the hell out of me."
"We've got our own problems and it's so far away," Wolfe said over lunch recently at the Hive, a restaurant and coffeehouse owned by the mayor of this suburb near Cincinnati, pointing to rising gasoline prices and tepid job growth. "We can't be completely isolationist, but sometimes you have to stay within your own home."
Two weeks after Trump's decision to take military action in Iran, more than a dozen interviews with voters here in a Republican stronghold revealed anxiety over the potential for another elongated U.S. war. The White House has said the campaign would last four to six weeks, and that elevated gasoline prices were only temporary.
Most polls since the start of the U.S.-Israel bombing run find the U.S. involvement is unpopular, with about 55% or more of voters opposing Trump's decision to go to war.
Polls by Fox News, NPR/PBS and Quinnipiac University find support at about 84% among the GOP for U.S. action or Trump's handling of Iran. But the polls found somewhere between 11% and nearly 25% of Republicans oppose Trump's handling of Iran.
In an NBC News survey, 90% of Republicans who consider themselves in Trump's MAGA movement supported military action against Iran. But among non-MAGA Republicans, 54% supported the U.S. attack.
The poll also found voters see inflation and the cost of living as the top issue the nation faces.
The president traveled to northern Kentucky near Cincinnati last week as part of his campaign to oust Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican who has represented the area for more than a decade and has clashed with Trump over many issues, including the military strikes.
The May 19 primary could serve as a window into not only Republican views of the economy and the strength of Trump's endorsement, but also on the president's decision to intervene in the Middle East.
It pits Massie against Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL who was part of the invasion of Panama that led to the surrender of Manuel Noriega in 1990.
Average regular gasoline prices nationally were around $3.68 a gallon on Saturday, according to AAA, a 23% increase from before the war started at the end of February. In northern Kentucky, most stations recently showed prices approaching $3.50 for regular unleaded, an increase of more than 50 cents compared with a month ago, according to AAA.
The volatility is rooted in a waterway thousands of miles away. The Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula, serves as a transit point for roughly 20% of the world's oil. With the conflict halting around 95% of prewar traffic through the corridor, according to Syracuse University supply chain management professor Patrick Penfield, markets are pricing in a conflict premium that flows to American pumps.
"When you even hear about the Strait of Hormuz, it's because there's going to be crazy fluctuations in the gas prices," said Zachary Metz, an attorney and Republican activist in nearby Campbell County who supports Massie.
"It's going to have a short-term financial impact but it's going to be for the greater good and long-term stability," said Edith Riley, a Trump supporter who waited in line outside the president's event in Hebron, Ky., along with her husband, Tyson.
For Ashton Rose, who works as a cook at a restaurant in Cold Spring, Ky., high oil and gasoline prices means putting less fuel in his Chevy Impala to keep costs down.
Rose said he voted for Trump in 2016 but didn't cast ballots in the last two presidential elections.
"I don't see how it's benefiting the American citizens in any way, shape or form," he said of the Iran war, as he filled up his tank.” [1]
1. U.S. News: A GOP Stronghold Feels War Anxiety --- Gasoline-price surge since attack on Iran has voters queasy in northern Kentucky. Thomas, Ken; Wolfe, Rachel. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 17 Mar 2026: A4.
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