Rural garners several mentions in first night of Dem debate, none in second night

Here are the mentions of "rural" in the July 30 debate, first night of two in the second round of Democratic candidates debating (emphasis added to the "rural" mention each time):

First, from former congressman Michael Delaney of Maryland, regarding the viability of Medicare for all, specifically Medicare reimbursement rates:

DELANEY: Listen, his math is wrong. That's all I'm saying -- that his math is wrong, it's been well-documented that if all the bills were paid at Medicare rate, which is specifically -- I think it's in section 1,200 of their bill, then many hospitals in this country would close. 

I've been going around rural America, and I ask rural hospital administrators one question, "If all your bills were paid at the Medicare rate last year, what would happen?"

And they all look at me and say, "We would close." 

But the question is, why do we have to be so extreme? Why can't we just give everyone health care as a right, and allow them to have choice?

(Here's a resource I just came across on rural hospital closures).

Second, there was Bernie Sanders when challenged about gun control wore the fact he's from rural Vermont as a defense:

SANDERS: I think we have got to do -- I think what I meant is what President Obama said, in that nobody up here is going to tell you that we have a magical solution to the crisis.

Now, I come from one of the most rural states in America. I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. And as president I suspect it will be an F record. What I believe we have got to do is have the guts to finally take on the NRA.

Third, Beto O'Rourke talked rural and urban, red and blue, when asked how he could beat Donald Trump:

O'ROURKE: Bernie was talking about some of the battleground states in which we compete -- there is a new battleground state, Texas and it has 38 electoral college votes. And the way that we put it in play was by going to each one of those 254 counties. No matter how red or rural, we did not write you off. No matter how blue, or urban -- we did not take you for granted. 

And we didn't trim our sails, either. We had the courage of our convictions, talking about universal health care, comprehensive immigration reform, and confronting the challenge of climate before it is too late. We brought everyone in...

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota came next, when asked who on the stage was making promises they could not keep:

KLOBUCHAR: Everyone wants to get elected. But my point is this: I think when we have a guy in the White House that has now told over 10,000 lies, that we'd better be very straightforward with the American people. 

And, no, do I think that we are going to end up voting for a plan that kicks half of America off of their current insurance in four years? No, I don't think we're going to do that. I think there is a better way to get what we all want to see, which is lower costs for health care. 

Do I think that we're going to vote to give free college to the wealthiest kids? No, I don't think we're going to do that. So that's what I'm talking about. 

But what I don't like about this argument right now, what I don't like about it at all, is that we are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election. 

(APPLAUSE) 

And I think how we win an election is to bring everyone with us. And, yes, I have won in a state every single time statewide. I have won those congressional districts that Donald Trump won by over 20 points. He just targeted Minnesota last week. And I have done it by getting out there and talking to people, by knowing rural issues and farm issues...

I noticed that Klobuchar touted her midwesternness, presumably as related to her electability, several times.

The fifth mention was back to Senator Bernie Sanders, responding to Montana governor Steve Bullock:

SANDERS: Look, Steve, there ain't nobody in the Congress who's more strongly pro-worker than I am. So when I talk about taking on the fossil fuel industry, what I am also talking about is a just transition. All right. We can create what the Green New Deal is about. It's a bold idea. We can create millions of good-paying jobs. We can rebuild communities in rural America that have been devastated. So we are not anti-worker. We are going to provide and make sure that those workers have a transition, new jobs, healthcare and education.

And the sixth mention brings us back to Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was talking rural infrastructure:

I think the Governor here in Michigan smartly ran on the slogan, “fix the damn roads,” and it is an issue for union jobs. And so I think what we need to do is not have a president that’s promised he was going to do that on election night, if anyone remembers. And then he hasn’t followed through -- he has done nothing, he blew up a meeting at the White House. 

I would put $1 trillion in to this, and I would pay for it by first of all changing the capital gains rate by doing something when it comes to that regressive tax bill that left everyone behind, but really made his Mar-a-Lago friends richer as he promised. 

And I would take that money and put it in to rural broadband and green infrastructure so you won't have what you just saw in Detroit with the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood, the African neighborhood -- that was African-American neighborhood that was most-hit when you had those recent rainstorms. 

And I truly believe that if we're going to move on infrastructure --

Klobuchar also mentioned rural --as in rural and urban--when talking about the need for economic development:

The second thing I would say is that economic opportunity means economic opportunity for everyone in this country. I know that because I have lived it. And that means when we put out there better childcare and better education, and we pay teachers more, and we make sure there's a decent retirement system in place, yes, we help the African-American community and we must, because they have been the ones that have been most hurt by what we've seen in the last decades, but we help everyone. 

So what I say to the people in my rural parts of my state, just like I say to them in the city and bring them together, is that economic opportunity must be there for everyone.

I just finished watching the second night of the second debate, and I didn't hear any mentions of "rural."  I'll be checking the transcript, however, to be sure because perhaps I missed some.