For many weeks, Kansas Democrats have been blowing the whistle on Republican candidates not wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each time a leading Republican is seen in public without a mask, the Democrats have called them out on social media.
There’s U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Roger Marshall meeting voters. No mask.
There’s congressional candidate Tracey Mann at a ribbon-cutting. No mask.
There’s Kansas Treasurer and congressional candidate Jake LaTurner with U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. No mask.
The Democrats have pounded away at COVID-19 themes during the general election, pointing to polls showing that Americans want health safeguards during a pandemic.
It has become one of the key narratives of the 2020 election season that could be a defining issue, although for what party or which candidate remains to be seen.
The total number of national COVID cases passed 83,000 for the second day in a row on Saturday, the two biggest one-day totals on record.
The new record came at the same time as members of the vice president’s staff have been diagnosed with the infection.
“Intuitively, it should be the No. 1 issue,” said Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty.
Republicans don’t believe that should be the case and they question whether it will ultimately be that effective of an issue as voters go to the polls.
National GOP Committeeman Mark Kahrs said he believes Democrats have been trying to take advantage of the issue. Whether it works is another question, he said.
“I don’t think they would be advocating as forcefully as they have been if they didn’t think they had some political advantage with it,” Kahrs said. “I don’t think it’s an advantage whatsoever.”
Kahrs criticized the political left for holding out people who don’t wear masks.
“Americans who feel like they need to wear a face covering should by all means wear a face covering,” he said. “But shaming people that do not wear masks, there’s no place for that.”
Democrats have been driving home the issue for months, often mocking Republicans on social media for not taking steps to protect public health.
Roger Marshall, “weren’t you in the Capitol with three members who tested positive YESTERDAY?” Kansas Democrats asked in a tweet about the state’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate.
“Now you’re visiting Kansans’ homes without a mask on? This really isn’t rocket science,” the Democratic Party posted.
The issues has seeped into political campaigns for the Legislature, as well.
Democrats have criticized Republicans in ads for trying to rob Gov. Laura Kelly of her emergency powers during a pandemic.
They recently targeted Republican state Rep. Renee Erickson – a state Senate candidate – about complaining on Facebook that a retailer denied her entry because she wasn’t wearing a mask.
Overland Park Democratic House candidate Linda Featherston went on Twitter to accuse Republican rival Rashard Young and his campaign helpers of meeting voters maskless.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have run digital ads saying Republican lawmakers didn’t take the pandemic seriously.
“When you see leaders within parties not even adhering to recommended procedures, you’ve got to question what they’re about,” said Vicki Hiatt, chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party.
Republicans say the Democrats are deflecting attention from the failures of Kelly’s Labor Department, which has been swamped since the pandemic hit last spring.
Republicans say Democrats are only looking for gotcha moments of candidates without masks to create a narrative that only reflects a single point in time.
“Kansans haven’t forgotten that it was Laura Kelly’s incompetence that failed to deliver unemployment payments in the midst of her shutdown, when families were hurting and struggling the most,” said Republican consultant Jared Suhn.
“Most importantly, they aren’t going to forget how callously the Democrats exploited this global pandemic for partisan political gain. Their only goal is political victory, not real solutions for the thousands of Kansans impacted by the virus.”
The debate over COVID-19 policy has been percolating in Kansas and nationally for more than six months, since the pandemic first swept into the country.
The seeds were planted in Kansas when Republicans and Democrats scuffled over the governor’s emergency powers last March, a dispute that continued for several months and is now being used in ads against Republicans.
The fight continued into Easter week last spring, when the governor tried to limit the size of religious gatherings in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
The governor’s action infuriated Republicans, who saw the governor stepping on the religious freedoms of Kansans.
She criticized them for jeopardizing public health and playing partisan games during the pandemic.
For months, the governor and Republican legislative leadership have battled back and forth in a debate pitting public health regulations during the pandemic against freedom to move about and congregate freely.
They fought over the governor’s mask mandate and whether Kelly should commit to not closing businesses during the pandemic.
The continuing dispute heightened last August, when House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. revealed he had contracted COVID-19.
The governor criticized him for attending a State Finance Council meeting after being released from the hospital. He accused her of politicizing his illness.
It’s a debate that has played out nationally and reached into the highest levels of American government when the president, who played down wearing masks, and his family were diagnosed with COVID-19 after a White House event.
Now, it’s unfolding in Kansas where Democrats believe they might have the upper hand against Republicans, who have been criticized in campaign ads for not taking the pandemic seriously enough.
“Kansans know that following the public health guidance is a matter of protecting one another and mitigating the spread of COVID-19…,” Kansas Democratic Party spokeswoman Reeves Oyster said.
“With over 7 million cases and over 205,000 Americans dead, we believe the entire country will come down on the side of health,” Oyster said.
Republicans don’t see it that way. They don’t believe that masks and their resistance to other government health regulations will haunt them on Election Day.
They say it’s the governor — as much as she says she disdains politics during the pandemic — who has been partisan.
“She’s the governor of the state, so everything she does is looked at through a political lens,” Kahrs said.
“She can’t make a statement or edict without it being looked at in a political view.”
The debate blew up at a State Finance Council meeting last month when Republican lawmakers urged the governor to commit to not closing businesses while the emergency disaster declaration was in place during the pandemic.
“The time has really come to stop playing politics with this. That’s what’s going on here,” Kelly said. “This has absolutely nothing to do with protecting business or anything else.”
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins quickly fired back at the governor.
“I’m flat tired of that narrative,” Hawkins said. “It’s time for the gamesmanship to end.”
The issue of mask mandates surfaced again last week when the governor said she wanted to work on a bipartisan mask mandate with GOP legislative leadership after so many counties refused to go along with the requirement.
“Harmful, anti-mask and anti-science rhetoric has politicized our ability to tackle a public health issue, much of it coming from our elected leaders,” Kelly said.
The governor’s announcement at a news conference came less than two weeks before the general election, leading Republicans to greet her announcement with skepticism.
“The governor’s approach makes for fine political theater but does not make for good policy discussion on how to keep Kansans healthy,” Hawkins said.
But Democrats point to polling that shows public opinion is on their side when it comes to health care protocol during the pandemic.
A new HealthDay/Harris Poll out last week showed that 93% of U.S. adults said they sometimes, often or always wear a mask when they leave their home and can’t socially distance. Seventy-two percent said they always wear a mask.
A New York Times poll showed that most Americans favored a national mask mandate.
The poll of 987 likely voters found that 59% supported a national mask mandate compared to 39% opposed.
The Times reported that 68% of voters over 65 favored a mask mandate as well as 30% of Republicans.
Wichita State University Political Scientist Neal Allen said the federal government’s response to the pandemic is so unpopular that it could hurt Republicans in Kansas.
“Democrats are united on the idea that masks should be worn in all public places as much as possible, and Republicans are far from united on those things,” Allen said.
“Any issue where you can unite your own side and split the other side is usually a good thing,” he said.
Republicans have tried to recast the debate, arguing that health regulations have shut down the economy and put people out of work.
Republican congressional candidate Amanda Adkins, for instance, said in a debate last week that closing down the economy in the Kansas City region at the outset of the pandemic created a lot of anxiety.
“The devastation is real,” Adkins said during the debate against Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids.
“But the devastation has been caused by shutting down business and the economy.”
Adkins talks about what she calls the “shutdown culture,” where Democrats race to close down the economy or to implement what her campaign spokesman called “extreme measures” without considering “collateral damage.”
Marshall has used a similar tactic in trying to fend off criticism from Democratic rival Barbara Bollier, who accuses the congressman of not taking the pandemic seriously enough, even as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb.
Bollier has portrayed Marshall as an anti-science candidate who spins conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and campaigns without taking the safety precaution of wearing a mask.
Marshall suggests that the Democrats want to close down the economy as an overreaction to the virus.
“She and her party are the party of mandates, the party of mask mandates, the party of telling us our kids can’t go to school, the party that’s telling us our job’s not essential,” Marshall said in a recent interview.
Gov. Kelly and other Democrats, meanwhile, have used health safety regulations as one way of keeping the economy open, a strategy some political scientists say is smart.
“I believe the strategy of tying masks to businesses remaining open is a good one,” said Beth Vonnahme, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“It addresses the economic concern — avoiding across-the-board closures — and the health concern — masks are the best way aside from staying home and social distancing to mitigate the spread of the virus,” she said in an email.
Davids recently argued that very point.
“We can’t have a healthy economy unless we have healthy people,” Davids said in an interview.
“Everything that we do has to be geared toward slowing down the coronavirus pandemic and making sure we’re doing things in as safe a way as possible,” she said.
Some Democrats believe the Republicans have taken precarious positions, both politically and for the safety of the state.
“I think they are taking a big bet and I think it is a profoundly irresponsible one, both from a public health perspective and from an electoral perspective,” said Democratic state Rep. Brett Parker, who is working to elect House candidates.
“I do think it’s important that we have elected leaders, especially going into an election, that are doing the right thing, setting a good example and really promoting public health and the safety of their constituents,” he said.
The Republicans are skeptical that the mask debate will influence voters.
“It shouldn’t be a campaign issue. I don’t think people will be moved to vote or not vote for somebody over whether they have a mask on or not,” said Kansas Republican Party Chairman Mike Kuckelman.
He noted how Democrats have been using photos on social media to call out Republicans for not wearing a mask.
“They’ll take a picture of some Republican, somewhere and they’ll claim, ‘Look the Republicans don’t follow the CDC guidelines,'” he said.
“Where do you come up with this information because you got that one photo that you stalked around to get?”
He said the party has encouraged candidates to comply with health guidelines developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There are points where you have to exercise judgement and the outcome can be different depending on the circumstances,” he said.
“The Democrats are trying to capitalize on a one-size-fits-all (law), and I just don’t think the public is going to go for it.”
Some Democrats don’t couch it so much as a winning strategy as it’s an issue that cuts across the lives of so many people who want a return to normalcy
“The pandemic is the No. 1 issue facing out state right now,” said Kerry Gooch, chief of staff for Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley.
“I wouldn’t call it a winning issue,” Gooch said, “but it is the issue that is affecting everybody right now whether you like it or not.
“We’re talking about it,” he said, “because we know it’s affecting our voters.”
