"What Rural Voters Want is a Glimmer of Hope That Things Will Change"

"It was not for a lack of effort that the Biden campaign was unable to connect with rural voters this year. In May, Biden convened a virtual 'rural roundtable' in western Wisconsin to show the candidate listening to stakeholders about rural economic development, health care and the crisis in Wisconsin's dairy industry, brought on by chronically low milk prices. Nor was it for a lack of policy proposals: The Biden campaign released an exhaustive 'rural plan' for anyone to read. All of these political gestures, however, are filtered through the lens of what political scientist Katherine Cramer calls 'rural consciousness'—including a perception that cities are where decisions are made, culture happens and resources flow, and that rural communities are not in control of their own futures. Even as a kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden was seen as a creature of an establishment that has marginalized rural communities for decades." 

Bill Hogseth at Politico writes that "many rural people have lost trust in the Democratic Party."