At the federal level rural states are over-weighted (because Senate) but at the state level the cities run the state.
It always amuses me when urban and inner suburb dwellers want big federal government. They'd have a lot more latitude to run things their way if the commerce clause got reigned in and the 10A got some respect.
1/3rd of the top 15 cities in the US are in Texas, but thanks to a good-sized rural citizenship, nearly best-in-the-country gerrymandering, and innovative voter suppression, the state is still deeply red-controlled.
Because the populations of their cities and suburbs are red (remember, we're talking at the margins here) to the point that required items on the official blue platform that blue candidates must espouse in order to get blue funding are deal breakers to them (at the margins).
HN always has a wide blind spot for how much the average person's beliefs are mixed and matched from the left and right. Ask the office janitor or delivery truck driver what he/she thinks about abortion and LGBTQ rights and then ask them what they think about min-wage and healthcare. Odds are you'll get points from both parties represented. Red states are reliably red because those people reliably care about things from the red platform more than they care about things from the blue platform and blue states are blue for the same reason.
In every case the largest cities voted for Biden. Texas is particularly stark because all of the top 4 cities, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin went for Biden.
It always amuses me when urban and inner suburb dwellers want big federal government. They'd have a lot more latitude to run things their way if the commerce clause got reigned in and the 10A got some respect.