The Covid epidemic has been ongoing for the past eighteen months. In all these months a lot has happened. Covid has played a major role in the political systems. Joe Biden has been lifted to the White House, commanding the attention of the electorate. But this might come to an end really soon.
Although the Covid pandemic is not yet over, it has been slowly fading away. This improvement has made the voters more active. Strategists and analysts are suggesting their parties to focus more on the upcoming elections in 2022 as the advertisements and political campaigns from this year have not been very effective.
Julie Roginsky who was a famous adviser to Governor Phil Murphy, said “ Everbody’s just ready to move on,”. He further added to his claim that now people are not paying much attention to the covid instead they are focusing more on the things they care about. They know that Science has not yet confirmed safety from covid but people are now starting to pay more attention to the things they love.
We are seeing less Covid campaigns too. This is because of the improving conditions of the ongoing situation for example the death rate has declined, People are getting vaccinated and everyone’s taking care of themselves in the best way possible.
In the days of the gubernatorial race contests in Virginia, twenty-three percent of the voters set Covid as their voting concern. This has increased from the previous month when it was only eleven percent voters setting Covid as their main voting concern. They are prioritizing it over the jobs, economy, and education, etc because all other issues are majorly arising from the Covid crises.
In the state of New Jersey though, Murphy is not doing great against the Jack Ciattarelli of the Republican party. Here in this state Covid is not prioritized by the voters and has hopelessly fallen behind jobs, economy, and education. They did not set Covid as their major voting concern
Campaigns are not focused on Covid now. This is clearly backed by the data. In 2020 October month $245 million was spent on ads regarding Covid which has declined excessively.
This huge shift of focus is seen majorly in Virginia. Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the month of September pointed on his opponent Glenn Youngkin from the Republican party that he was not a supporter of government orders about the Covid pandemic. Now after a month later McAuliffe seems to be doing the same thing as his adviser messaged the surroundings that the pandemic has worn off. Now his campaigns are more abortion rights-focused than the Covid. Because of this campaign, Youngkin is being compared to President Donald Trump so that his base voters will turn against him.
In the last week President Trump was mentioned in Biden’s speech for twenty-four times. This was while McAuliffe was with him in Arlington, Virginia. He mentioned Trump way more than he mentioned Covid.
The voters in Virginia trust McAuliffe more than Youngkin in taking care of the Covid situation according to a poll presented by the Washington Post-Schar School. But since the Covid is no longer an important issue to voters so they are both still in the race.
All these candidates running for elections in Virginia are not spending as much as they were before on the Covid campaigns. , According to AdImpact, the amount spent on the ads relating to Covid has dropped by seven percent overall.
Tribbett said, “It certainly doesn’t appear from being on the ground in Virginia that the public is really concerned about the Covid situation in any way like they were over the last 18 months,”
Even when McAuliffe is considered better regarding the pandemic issue. Tribbett further emphasized that it did not matter if people were not going on the Covid issue.
Newsom and the other democrats believe that Biden is falling off of the public rating. The public is slowly losing trust in him which is a big concern for the party. This public approval could be regained by showing the progress of the President. As long as the focus could be reverted back to the reason why he was elected, the situation can change. He was elected to get us rid of the Covid situation. If he can focus on this and work for its betterment then the situation can change for good.
But the fact that the Covid is not coming to an end anytime soon still remains. Every day thousands of people die because of it in the United States. There are no vaccines working for children. The White House members and the Democrats are seeing this situation with a Biden’s agenda in it. That if the Covid is removed completely then the schools, workplaces will reopen and the economy will stabilize. This will lead to favoring the Democrats as then they could carry out the campaigns for elections in a better and powerful way.
James Carville who previously worked as a strategist for Bill Clinton said “I don’t think we need people to get sick to win an election,”. He has been making extreme efforts to help McAuliffe raise money. He believed that improving the Covid situation and the economy through it will actually be favorable to the party next year. He further said, “I don’t know how good this is for Democrats, but I can’t imagine that it’s bad.”
If Covid loses it value in politics then It will be bad news for Republicans too. The Republicans have raised a good amount and took the base voters on their side by criticizing the vaccines and restrictions which were imposed because of the Covid. Republican Governors Ron DeSantis from Florida and Kristi Noem from South Dakota were only known for their policies against the Covid. As now the situation is getting better and the government is providing much relaxation in restricting the people, the Republicans hate against them will turn off too.
Tim Walz mentioned that he had been advising Republicans in Minnesota to highlight and talk about other issues other than this one. The pandemic to him does not seem to be a “game-changer” for the 2022 elections.
“I just don’t think you’re going to be able to ride Covid to the governor’s mansion,” he said. “Most people are over it.”
Also Read: COVID Vaccine is an Option for Children, But Parents Hesitate to Agree
