Do "purple" state politicians moderate their positions anymore? Has that ever happened?

I was actually thinking the same thing

Edit - they govern as if they live in Oklahoma or any other super red state

Purple Republicans seldom are.

This dynamic needs to change.

-Laelth

Joni Ernst is loudly proclaiming that she's a moderate/centrist in Iowa, trying to distance herself from Trump after spending years kissing his ass.

now that she's up for reelection.

Here in Florida, they are content to represent half of the population, and let the other side do without. I wish DeSantis was up this time, he might have gotten washed out with the tide.

it's solidly republican, which lends one to think that they (republicans) skewed district lines in such a biased manner, that it cost loads of democratic seats and ensuring that republicans were more easily elected, all during increasing demographics too, which favored increasing democratic numbers, as more and more people moved into the big cities to find jobs, etc. leaving the rural areas behind.

That's why I feel that the federal government or someone totally independent of the entire political apparatus be a watchdog with teeth over all election activities in the US (with the appropriate authorities to demand any and all remedies needed to ensure that all voting activities remain free and clear of efforts to taint the process, voter registrations, voting, etc.).

In any event, I also feel that despite the gerrymandering that has gone on in MO, this will fade away pretty quickly as population numbers continue to shift towards the bigger cities, after all, large economic bases drive prosperity, drive home values upwards, and increase the number of those working (able to find jobs in the bigger cities), whereas the rural areas of the state of MO is literally suffering, due to lack of readily available workers (trained), or lack of decent jobs (fast food, etc. type of jobs, of course resulting in minimum wage type of payments), no insurance or benefits provided to any of these workers either, the list goes on.

One bright spot, but I think the Covid 19 has taken a bite out of this, is that tourism, long a staple of the Missouri economy, has been a big chunk of the MO economy, but I think that this area has taken a big hit, people aren't traveling as much (in their minds, too dangerous for the most part). Sure one sees the newscasts of the seemingly thousands of tourists on the lakes over the weekends, but come Sunday, they are all flocking to the highways and disappearing to places not in MO. This is a 'gig' economy, since basically, businesses are only busy Fridays, Sat., and Sunday. The rest of the week is dead.

The point I'm making is that the population of MO is shifting ever so more, to the bigger cities, which are democratic strongholds, sure the republicans tried to lock in their voters, but this will fail. Also, I think efforts are under way in MO to let the voters decide where boundaries of districts should be (don't let the politicians decide, etc.), and I think these voter initiatives will pass, as more and more voters are getting tired of the jerry rigging and other nonsense.