Ahead of Anthony Fauci’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee tomorrow, Democrats are hoping voters will forget their support for the unpopular COVID-era mandates that failed families across Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, and Minnesota.
A new editorial explains how Fauci’s return to Capitol Hill is already reigniting scrutiny of Troy Jackson, Haley Stevens, Roy Cooper, James Talarico, and Peggy Flanagan, as well as their records during the pandemic.
Read more here or below.
Maine’s Senate candidate Troy Jackson was serving as president of the state Senate when the pandemic began, and the state saw a severe decline in public education during his tenure. The state fell from fifth in the nation to last after Jackson encouraged statewide school closures and disrupted the social lives of students throughout the state. By 2024, Maine students recorded their lowest reading and math scores in 30 years. In addition, Jackson voted for legislation that spiked the cost of energy in the state, adding $234 million to ratepayer bills in 2025.
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[S]tevens voted for a series of COVID legislation that cost taxpayers billions of dollars, including the American Rescue Plan that gave millions to illegal aliens and had an estimated price tag of $1.9 trillion. She later voted against a bill that extended the statute of limitations on fraud cases tied to COVID-era programs, much of which was funded by the very American Rescue Plan Stevens helped pass.
But the COVID fraud Stevens wanted to sweep under the rug was substantial. The Department of Justice recorded 157,000 ongoing unemployment fraud investigations, and 1,600 that were yet to be addressed as of 2025.
The largest of these fraud schemes happened under Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor who is now running for Senate. $250 million in Minnesota fraud was committed by 47 individuals and was largely facilitated by the phony non-profit Feeding Our Future. The “schemes stacked upon schemes” discovered in the state also included taking advantage of Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services, stealing tens of millions in Medicaid funding.
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Nearly $50 million in fraud occurred in North Carolina under the governorship of Roy Cooper. And according to state records, officials recovered only $12.1 million of the fraudulent funds.
Not only did Cooper’s administration mishandle funds, but under Cooper, North Carolina remained in a COVID state of emergency until August 2022. And although North Carolinians were robbed of two years of social gatherings, Cooper abetted the riots of 2020, saying “People are more important than property,” and that “black lives do matter.” North Carolina law enforcement agencies reported spending at least $2.2 million in response to the summer protests in Raleigh alone.
James Talarico, a Texas House member at the time of the pandemic, frequently criticized Governor Greg Abbott’s response to the outbreak, saying the governor created a mess. When Abbott ended the statewide mask mandate in 2021, Talarico expressed his dissent by posting a picture of himself wearing a mask reading “Love thy neighbor,” citing the phrase as his reason for continuing to wear one. As late as 2022, Talarico made a public appearance wearing a face mask.