In states, GOP stays course
PA. » Republican governors and lawmakers in many states have followed President Donald Trump’s lead on their response to the coronavirus, declining to impose mask mandates and pushing to lift restrictions on businesses and social gatherings as swiftly as possible.
Revelations that the president and first lady are now among those who have tested positive for the disease appeared to do little to change their thinking.
In the hours after the nation learned that Trump had tested positive for the virus, Republicancontrolled courts, conservative groups and Republican lawmakers continued to move against mask mandates and other coronavirus restrictions.
In Michigan on Friday, the state Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, struck down a law that has underpinned months of orders by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, including a mask mandate, that were aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. That 1945 law is unconstitutional, it said.
It was an extraordinary development in a nasty fight between Whitmer, a Democrat, and Republicans who control the Legislature. At one point in the spring, protesters and an armed militia filled the statehouse to demand an end to the restrictions some labeled “tyranny.”
Also Friday, Republicans who control the Louisiana House of Representatives supported a package of measures aimed at unraveling the state’s coronavirus restrictions imposed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.
“I don’t think that the president having COVID is any more important than every Louisianian that’s had COVID, so it doesn’t really change my perspective on it,” said Rep. Julie Emerson, a Republican from suburban southcentral Louisiana.
In Wisconsin, where rising case counts have made the state third in the nation in new cases per capita, according to the
COVID Tracking Project, Republicans who control the Legislature filed a court motion Friday in support of a lawsuit seeking to repeal a mask mandate under Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.
Similar power struggles have played out ever since the beginning of the virus outbreak in numerous states, mostly where the governor is a Democrat and Republicans control the legislature.
Kansas has had one of the longestrunning feuds, since Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly closed schools in March and imposed stay- at- home orders and restrictions on businesses and social gatherings. Republican lawmakers, who had forced Kelly to accept local control overrestrictions, are now considering creating a panel with permanent oversight of how the governor handles extended emergencies.
In GOP- controlled Legislatures in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Democrats pushed Republican majority leaders to toughen their policy on masks for lawmakers on official business, to force Republican members to actually comply with it or simply to implement one.
Rep. John Becker, a Republican from Cincinnati who has led efforts to undo the coronavirus restrictions and mask mandate imposed by Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, said he hasn’t changed his mind. He said he still won’t wear a mask but doesn’t begrudge those who do.
On Thursday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives canceled its floor session on the news that a second Republican member had tested positive.
“It’s time that we realize that we are in this situation, and it is real. And I hope they realize that it is real when the president contracts the virus,” said House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, a Pittsburgh- area Democrat.
A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been lifting restrictions aggressively on restaurants and other businesses despite concerns of a resurgence, said the governor isn’t going to change the state’s reopening plans just because the president contracted the virus.