Politics In The Time Of Global Pandemic – Forum Network Series – Partisanship V. Pandemic: Common Enemy, Disjointed Response

Times of crisis require governments to cooperate and coordinate large-scale responses. Yet Congress and the President are inherently partisan actors in a federal system — negotiating the competing pressures of obtaining concrete results for constituents, but not being seen as too accommodating of political rivals.

What are the main political takeaways from legislating in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic? How have motives of major actors shifted or changed and how has this impacted the federal response? Does President Trump still dominate the GOP? Also, what electoral outcomes might we see in November, given what current polling, favorability ratings and climbing COVID cases and deaths tell us?