2019 Federal Election

[MidTowner]

He explained the relevance in his last sentence: "widespread dissatisfaction in a geographical area is bad for the union."

That's accurate. Dissatisfaction that is dispersed geographically is a lot less likely to manifest itself in ways that are threatening to cohesion than dissatisfaction that is concentrated among one regional population. Maybe that's less true in the modern era than in the past, but it's still true.

Edit: I say that because you said "of equal importance to the country." Of course the state needs to pay more attention to 8% of voters who comprise almost a third of voters in a specific region, than 8% of voters who are spread evenly. The former group could, if ignored, threaten to separate and threaten the state's very existence.

That's an awfully cynical belief.

Leaving widespread dissatisfaction to fester is how we get things like Trump, which I'd argue is pretty bad for the US.

That's not a belief, it's a fact. I don't personally believe widespread dissatisfaction should be ignored, but it's definitely factual to say that regionally concentrated dissatisfaction is a bigger threat to the state.