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Communications Capstone Paper Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 #BiggerinTX, #COVID19: An Examination of Economy and Government as Ideograph between State, City, and County Officials in Texas on Twitter Introduction The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has transformed from a viral infection into a social phenomenon in the United States as issues of individual freedom and community action have become more apparent. States where the Republican party has the majority power, like Texas, saw high volumes of cases due to relaxed policies about mask wearing and building capacity. However, while state representatives were more adamant about reopening the State and continuing with business as usual, Texas city officials were trying to push for stay-at-home restrictions and mask mandates. This disconnection on COVID-19 responses in Texas, especially in the spring and summer of 2020, highlights the ever growing tension between state and city governments. Part of this is due to the fact that city officials, like in Houston, are more Democratic in terms of political party and are more willing to invoke government intervention for a crisis. Because of the differing political ideologies, conservative Texas state politicians and city officials saw more conflict than resolution in terms of agreeing how to respond to the pandemic. Besides communications concepts surrounding narrative and new media, there is also another layer to consider when examining politicians’ twitter accounts. As well as aiding in the polarization of American politics, the COVID-19 pandemic has also provided more evidence that poor, BIPOC communities are more susceptible to government inaction. These communities are 1 Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 more likely to contract and die from COVID-19, possibly due to lack of universal healthcare and the fact that people in these communities make up a majority of the essential workforce. Texas state politicians pushing for no mask mandates and zero to little social distancing guidelines means that these BIPOC communities are deemed disposable as long as they contribute to the economy. Looking at how reopening policies relate to neoliberalism and necropolitics, I believe this will enrich my capstone paper by putting the reopening process in context with the assumed disposability of certain Texans. My timeframe for looking at the tweets will range from March 13th, when Abbott declared a state of emergency and there were 50 confirmed cases, to July 10th, after Abbott stopped the reopening process and there were over 240,000 confirmed cases. I believe that this is a productive site for analysis because it examines the relationship between state and city officials that often have opposing political ideologies. There has always been discourse between the two forms of government, but these differences have taken a new form during the pandemic. When it was reported how many Texans were either contradicting and dying from COVID-19 or how many were losing their jobs, the stakes of these local to state conversations became more dire. However, political affiliations and party goals were still present, sometimes making bi-partianship unlikely. The first attempt at “reopening Texas” in the spring of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a surge in cases across the state, but mainly impacted city centers. In Houston, mayor Slyvester Turner and Harris County Judge, Lina Hidalgo, protested the initial decision to end stay-at-home orders and mask mandates, however it was not their decision to 2 Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 make. Once the governor, Greg Abbott, announced his reopening process on April 17th and made the executive order to not enforce mask mandates, there was nothing that city or county level politicians could do. Texan Political Demographic Since 1978 (“Overview and History”), Texas has been considered to be a “red state,” meaning that the Republican Party holds the majority in all three branches of state government (“Statewide Elected Officials) (Barragán and Morris). At first glance of the 2020 Presidential Election results, Republican candidate Donald Trump, won most of the 254 Texan counties and with that, the state’s electoral votes (“Texas Presidential Votes 2020”). Most of the counties are “red,” with only a few turning out “blue,” meaning they voted for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. However, the map that shows the blue counties are mostly urban areas, meaning there’s a greater population density in those counties compared to the rural “red” counties. Trump ended up only winning with only a 5.6% margin. For comparison, Trump won Texas by a 9.2% margin in 2016 against Hiliary Clinton (“Texas Presidential Votes 2016”). Counties with large populations, like Harris County in Houston, voted for Biden, as well as suburban counties flipping from red to blue, like Williamson County (Cai et al.). It should be noted that while Biden made gains in urban and suburban counties, he lost many Southern border counties, an area that Texas Democrats have depended on. About 66% of registered voters cast their ballots for the 2020 election, the highest turnout rate since 1992 (Najmabadi and Cai). Texas Democrats hope to make Texas a “purple” state, 3 Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 meaning that it’s a swing state where no one party is guaranteed control. However, the recent election has prompted a bill from Republicans from the Texas Senate to propose a bill that “relating to elections, including election integrity and security; creating a criminal offense; providing civil penalties” (Texas Congress, Senate). This would mean limiting voting hours, prohibit drive-thru voting, and require proof of disability to qualify for mail-in voting, affecting the BIPOC voters as well as people with disabilities the hardest (Ura). This bill would also affect urban counties more than rural ones, areas where Republicans lost. Brief Timeline of COVID-19 As a way to understand the pandemic in terms of Texas, it’s important to understand the pandemic on a global and national scale. Tracing the start of the pandemic on this scale will paint a picture of urgency as much of the United States and the rest of the world weren’t prepared for this. However, it’s also important to do this tracing because at the beginning of the pandemic, cases were comparatively low before reopening the state. Through this tracking, it becomes apparent that while Texas Republicans were calling for the economy to reopen, the virus was still affecting more and more people. The current COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China in early December of 2019 (Taylor) as an unidentified new virus. At the start of 2020 (“WHO’s Response”), city officials began to work with the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify the new virus as a novel coronavirus. During January, travel-related cases outside of China, including the United States, started to get reported and WHO called the novel coronavirus a “global health emergency” (Wee, Sui-lee, et al.). In February, the Trump Administration declares a public health emergency, while 4 Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 cases and the death toll continues to rise while the virus is given the official name, COVID-19 (“Timeline of COVID-19”). During this month, cruise ship passengers quarantine at a base in San Antonio after a possible exposure (Lamm). At the start of March, Texas confirms its first positive case in Fort Bend county a day after the Houston Livestock and Rodeo opens. On March 11th, WHO declares COVID-19 as a pandemic (“WHO’s Response”) and former-President, Donald Trump, declares a national emergency which allows federal funds to go towards stopping the spread of the virus (“Timeline of COVID-19”). In Texas, there are only 21 confirmed cases (Limon). COVID-19 in Texas During the first week of March, major Texas events started to be cancelled, like the Houston Rodeo and SXSW in Austin. Texas universities also begin to cancel in-person classes and move entirely online after spring break (Limon). On March 13th, Governor Abbott declares a state of emergency and announces extension of drive-through test sights for all metropolitan areas (Walters). Two days later, the first Texan died of COVID-19 (Pollock). Mayor Eric Johnson and Judge Lina Hidalgo, issue orders to close all bars and restaurants in Dallas and Harris counties, only allowing for take-out orders (Limon). Abbott doesn’t issue a state-wide shutdown of bars and restaurants, believing that the order “would drive panic and complete societal breakdown” (Abrahams). By the end of March, Abbott does issue a state-wide “stay-at-home” order where all non-essential businesses have to close down until May 4th (Svitek, “Stay Home”). At this point, there are more than 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Texas (Limon) 5 Claire Misfeldt Communications Capstone Paper D1 and the U.S. has the highest number of cases worldwide (Mcneil); a record that the U.S. still holds (“WHO COVID-19 Dashboard”). Throughout April, city officials and government officials have an agreement on keeping non-essential businesses closed. On April 3th, the CDC recommends that everyone wear a cloth mask to stop the spread of the virus (Taylor, Adam, et al.). On April 17th, Abbott announced a plan to “reopen” the state (Dexheimer) later that month. At this point, most of the major Texas cities had mask mandates or responded to Abbott’s plan by implementing mask mandates. Dallas county had one in place since the 17th but they would not enforce it through a fine (Manuel), Bexar County in San Antonio implemented one with a finable offense on the 16th (Herrara), and Austin gave out their mask mandate by also extending the stay-at-home order for Travis County (“Travis County Extends Stay Home-Work Safe”). However, it’s Houston’s Harris County mask mandate on April 22 that sparked outrage from Texas Republicans like Lieutenant Gov.
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