“There is a division between what your base politically wants you to do and what is right,” said Mari Woodlief, a Republican political consultant in Dallas who worked on the Fort Worth mayor’s first campaign. “She did the right thing, but it wasn’t what her base wanted her to do.”
After bar-related cases began to escalate, Abbott ordered that they be closed in late June. For weeks, he said the government should not require the use of masks, and then reversed the course before the July 4 weekend and established an order for most Texans.
Among the 25 US counties with the most cases per capita in the past week, nine are in Texas. That includes not only the populous counties that include Houston and Dallas, but also smaller counties that include San Angelo and Corpus Christi. The average total number of daily cases has exploited more than 10,000 across the state. In early July, Texas averaged about 6,500 new cases per day. In early June, the figure was around 1,400.
Major city leaders, mostly Democrats, have called for the power to impose specific county or city stay-at-home orders; Mr. Abbott has so far refused, arguing that such measures should be voluntary. That stance is common among conservatives in the state, suspicious of government intrusions on personal freedom.
Sam Bryant, an army veteran and Republican from Waxahachie, a solidly conservative suburb 30 miles south of Dallas, accused Abbott of doing exactly what the governor built in his political career: fighting for the government.
Mr. Bryant, 38, a member of the Texas Republican Party board of directors until he left frustrated a few days ago, said he had already decided not to run for another term because the board was filled with “many establishments doing nothing “
“I think what happened is that the party has lost the ability to get its message across,” said Bryant, who applauded West’s inauguration as president. “Why don’t we just dissolve everything and start from scratch?”
Mitch Smith contributed reporting from Chicago, and David Montgomery from Austin.
