Garman and his friends say they don't feel represented in Austin or Washington, D.C.

The Houston Perspective

Located about 300 miles southeast of May, Houston is home to 2.3 million people, and is the fourth largest city in the U.S.

Axelrad is a bustling beer garden in Houston's Midtown neighborhood where Mark Ellis and his coworkers frequent.

"A lot of times we're here playing board games," Ellis tells News 88.7. But games aside, Ellis votes in every election, and doesn't necessarily think rural voters in Texas misunderstand his perspective. "It's probably less that they don't understand the city, but they probably feel like the city doesn't understand them, and that they're sort of being left behind and forgotten," he says.

To him, differences in income and religious leanings drive a wedge between rural and urban areas. "You can probably look at a map and say, based on how rural it is, what the political leaning or even the cultural leaning might be in the area, and that makes it hard to feel unified," he says.

"It's probably less that they don't understand the city, but they probably feel like the city doesn't understand them, and that they're sort of being left behind and forgotten.”

A Democrat, Ellis isn't convinced that Texas is a truly red state. "If you look at what people actually believe, like each person individually, the state is much more Democratic than it is Republican," he says.

The beer garden is busy every night, attracting a young crowd that spreads across picnic tables and colorful hammocks. Sitting in one of the hammocks is Nicola Gardner. Though originally from California, she’s been in Houston for about 10 years. For Gardner, the divide in Texas isn’t urban versus rural but, rather, racial.

"In all of Texas, no matter where you go, it's still very much: you're either white, Mexican or black. So, everyone does not come together like that, no," she says.

Gardner describes herself as apolitical. She doesn’t vote, and says she prefers to just go with the flow.

Next door, at Luigi's Pizzeria, Houston native Cashuna Anthony sits outside, sharing chicken wings with her coworkers. Anthony says she isn't happy with the people in power.