Lockdowns are fading, but GOP outrage isn't in campaigns

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy this spring, Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther became an overnight symbol of rebellion against lockdown measures, spending two days in a Texas jail for refusing to close her doors.

Nearly $500,000 poured into a donation fund set up by conservative activists. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz made a show of getting his hair cut at Luther’s salon. She flew to Michigan to rally with shutdown protesters and launched a run for the Texas Senate, hammering Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over virus restrictions.

Her race in a deeply red and rural district is now a small test of what other Republican candidates nationwide are counting on with just five weeks before Election Day -- lingering voter resentment of lockdown orders to help boost them into office, at a time when President Donald Trump’s reelection may hinge on persuading voters that the worst is behind America.

“I stood up for you, I went to jail and I’ll do it again and again,” Luther told a room of voters this week in a small town outside Fort Worth, in an event live streamed on her Facebook page. Referring to Abbott, she said, “I’ll sleep on that man’s porch, bring the media until he opens up Texas.”

With the U.S. death toll from the virus at more than 200,000 and counting, Trump is eager to frame his race against Democrat Joe Biden, the former vice president, on the Supreme Court vacancy and on an aggressive message of law and order in the aftermath of protests over racial injustice.

But some GOP candidates, including Luther, want voters to remember the early weeks and months of closed restaurants and enforced lockdowns as the country is now slowly reopening and the unemployment rate is improving, though still high at 8.4%.

In Minnesota, Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis...