I found on one of the other posts how to do a row conditional format
using this formula in the "Formula is" option:

=(A1="variable1")+(A1="variable2")

Now the problem I'm having is when I want to copy them down for the
rest of my rows, they either get get scrambled with colors or just
follow colors of the very first row I copied. I'm guessing the obvious
reason has every bit to do with the $ sign in the conditional format.
So I tried to write it without it as well. But by doing that, the
whole row defaults to no color. What can I do to make it copy
correctly?