There are plenty of poors, gays, blacks, and so on in rural areas. And the progressives are working for theses rural Americans and their concerns. It seems strange that everybody assumes otherwise.
Sure, but there are still specifically rural issues that are being ignored. For example, in my province the rural areas are rapidly depopulating with the exception of a few small towns. The tax base that could comfortably support services like schools, hospitals etc, is no longer there. The left leaning government was forced to choose between subsidizing existing rural services with urban tax dollars or consolidating them in larger centres.
The NDP in Nova Scotia chose the latter for the most part and there was a backlash against it on election day. This shows how left leaning governments can be perceived as neglecting rural issues even if they're working for the issues you highlighted. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, rich, poor, gay or straight; if you find out you're local hospital is closing and that you'll have to drive an hour to get medical attention, you'll be upset and alienated.
