Do presidents respond to their constituents’ status-driven preferences when making foreign policy decisions? Recent work has explained how the values and beliefs that national leaders hold influence their conflict decision-making but has left un-examined the role of their constituents. Taking the American South and its unique status concerns as a case study, I use data from the Correlates of War Project and the International Crisis Behavior project to examine whether presidents’ use of force decisions are related to their relative dependence on Southern constituents. Using regression methods, permutations, and a variety of other tests including an examination of the southern realignment, I demonstrate repeatedly that presidents are responsive to the demands of their constituents when deciding whether to use military force.