From an argument perspective, consider the contradiction between "Many people live hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest DMV" in your first comment an

From an argument perspective, consider the contradiction between "Many people live hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest DMV" in your first comment and "That's the thing about the country: nobody lives there. If they can disenfranchise millions of urban people then they will happily accept also disenfranchising a handful of rural people." When you have that kind of obvious cognitive dissonance, it should be an obvious sign you believe something false. On a mile-high level, two things to consider: 1) Your base are your core, key supporters. They're the people who are 100% committed to voting for you, go to rallies, make small donations money, volunteer, and man phone lines. You can't run an effective campaign without a base. Trump's base is rural America and displaced predominantly white workers in decaying manufacturing cities. Fox News swings between playing clips of democratic elites calling them "privileged whites" and "racist redneck trash." 2) On a national level, in turns of number of votes, it doesn't matter much how many people live in smaller states. Whether it's one person or a half-million people, they get three electoral votes. Appealing to that base is a good tactic.