How red states silence urban voters
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Just as one of the major storylines of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was President Donald Trump facing off against Democratic governors like Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newson, much of the current political wrangling over COVID is being framed as President Biden urging caution versus GOP governors, like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Texas's Greg Abbott, throwing their states open without masks.
But below the surface, there's been a possibly more consequential fight over COVID that has not received nearly as much attention. It's not between the president and the states, but between red state governors and their blue cities, which almost universally promoted mask mandates and other mitigation measures â and by all evidence were the key element staunching the spread of the virus in those states.