A lot of talk on if the GOP can improve with suburbanites but not a lot talk about Dems improving in rural areas. The fact is they’ve blown a golden chance with their suburban take over: They’re losing so many rural areas by a 80-20 clip at best. If they could even make that 65-35 you’d see landslides, trend bucking midterm wins and a Dem owning of the White House.
How do Dems become competitive in rural areas and what canidate is best able to do that
The best way for Democrats to compete in rural areas is to run as DINOs, people like Connor Lamb or Joe Manchin can still win over some rural voters but most national Democrats cannot. It's hard because most Democrats who run as DINOs tend to lose to incumbent Republicans in rural areas and therefore don't get anywhere.
That district was the most Republican district held by a Dem for a while, it was always going to be tough to hold on there. It's honestly a bonus that Collin Peterson was able to hold on in 2010 and 2014 and says that he was able to appeal to rural voters.
He was essentially "grandfathered in," for a long time. You could say the same thing about Manchin and perhaps Tester.
Eventually the "grandfathering" wears out and polarization wins out.
But it would be impossible for a democrat to flip an open seat in a rural and polarized area like that.
