I was told it was a blue state disease.
But yeah... saw that on the chart you posted the other day. North Dakota is bad.
Interestingly, the state that was best on that chart was Vermont, the state that
a) voted most heavily against Trump
b) has a Republican governor who took it seriously from day 1
I know a lot of Democrats and Trump-haters from Vermont who have really admired the way Phil Scott handled Covid
I love Vermont politics. Always some of the most interesting in the country. And the gubernatorial race in the age of Covid was no exception....
Phil Scott announced on May 28, 2020, that he would seek a third term as governor, but in light of Covid, he would not campaign, maintain a campaign staff or fundraise. In a contested primary, he took 73% of the Republican vote (no surprise for an incumbent), but Scott also won 5% of the vote in the Progressive Party primary as write-ins.. For folks following along at home, that was the party that Bernie Sanders essentially created in his mayoral run that first put him in public office. So 5% of the Sanderistas voted for a Republican incumbent who as not even on the ballot in their primary, but who had one of the most aggressive Covid responses in the country. In fact, I would say *the* most aggressive response in the country relative to infection rates. The response in New York was more aggressive, but that had a crisis on their hands.
What did this aggressive response to Covid do for the Republican governor in the general election? In a state that went 66% Democrat for president, the Republican governor took 69% of the vote without even campaigning.
And that's not baseline popularity. When he ran for reelection in 2018, without Covid, he not only did worse in the general election (55%), he actually did worse in the Republican primary (67%). So even among the party faithful, he *gained* ground.
Of course, it's too late to change 2020, but I think he shows what could have happened in the US.
