By Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu
02/10/2022 12:48 PM EST
Democrats are making a U-turn on mask mandates, just in time for the midterms.
It’s happening among the party’s governors, several of whom are easing up their masking rules as Covid’s Omicron wave fades. And it’s happening on the Hill, where Democrats are suddenly lining up to call for rollbacks of the nation’s most noticeable pandemic-era rule.
Their pandemic pivot comes as they brace for a brutal November election in which the virus — and the culture war that’s accompanied it — is shaping up to be Democrats’ biggest blind spot.
“By the time we’re at the midterms, we’ll hopefully not be wearing these,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), gesturing to his own mask as he walked through the Capitol. “People are, of course, frustrated. We all want to get back to life.”
Many in the party are now coming around to what swing-district lawmakers have privately warned for weeks: that the Biden administration needs to drastically rethink its handling of Covid, particularly in the suburbs. Those vulnerable Democrats worry that ugly clashes over masks, school closings and vaccine mandates will crush them in purple districts this fall. But the current shift may be too little, too late to avoid blowback from voters wearied by pandemic whiplash.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/10/democrats-ditch-masks-covid-rules-omicron-00007815
