Bush was perceived as a more southern, rural type
Which is hilarious when you think about it.
Not really. Gore might have started off with a more typical rural southern upbringing but he had been in DC for several decades at that point. Whenever a politician spends that much time in DC their constituents start to feel like they're not as tied to their roots anymore. Bush, on the other hand, certainly wasn't born in a log cabin in a swamp (neither was Gore) but he had spent decades in Texas and was seen as more tied to the south than Gore was. Not to mention his political platform was more in line with the majority of southerners.
I mean, Elizabeth Warren grew up in Oklahoma but she has spent so much time in Massachusetts that nobody thinks she's southern.
