Have progressives largely abandoned the concerns of rural Americans?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Both parties have abandoned their concerns (though Republicans keep many of them in their corner by aping the style of rural America) because there aren't that many rural Americans left. The old ones will eventually die; the young ones will relocate to larger cities.

In Texas, Tea Party Republicans have more or less thrown rural voters over. They oppose school funding schemes that shift money from property-rich suburban districts to property-poor rural ones. They oppose a water plan to make the few small, family-owned farms and ranches remaining economically viable. If you look at a map of the 2012 Senate primary, Ted Cruz did terribly in rural Texas - the only counties he won were exurban ones surrounding Dallas and Houston, a handful of particularly reactionary East Texas counties, and some South Texas counties due to the Hispanic surname effect. Even in the runoff, his performance there was weakest. The fact that he still easily won sums up why both parties have abandoned them - they don't need their votes anymore.