Things I learned in poly sci, was that the Electoral college is so that NYC and California does not control the US politics because the constitution acknowledges that people in dead center Texas who are cattle ranchers have a different culture and different needs than a 60 year old multimillionaire hedgie in Manhattan.

The best example my one professor gave us is West Virginia Democrats compared to NJ Democrats, West Virginia and even PA on their wiki list the perfect politician for their states is a gun loving, religious but also social democrat, and I didn't realize it was true until the special election for Pittsburgh when the Democrat candidate had a political ad showing him shooting his AR-15, he said something along the lines of, "I like em and so do you!" This is similar to West Virginia Democrats and even Minnesota Democrats.

I think what is hurting Democrat voters is the belief that wel all have the same viewpoints. It is also the same but less so with Republican voters. My college professor said to me, and this was at a university in New Jersey, and he said that he doesn't support individual right to own firearms, and believed militia meant National Guard, "if only Democrat politicians dropped the whole gun thing, they would win hands down every election."