vox--2020-10-20--This week in TikTok: The influencer hair salon that’s under attack

Hello from The Goods ’ twice-weekly newsletter !
On Tuesdays , internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what ’ s been going on in the world of TikTok .
Is there something you want to see more of ?
Less of ?
Different of ?
Email rebecca.jennings @ vox.com , and subscribe to The Goods ’ newsletter here .
Influencer hair , the Instagrammifed cousin of TV hair , is one of those things where you know it when you see it : It ’ s always a little too long , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perfectly “ beachy ” when literally nobody ’ s hair has ever looked like that at the beach .
Of course , there ’ s no way it could , because influencer hair isn ’ t their real hair : It is made of a lot of expertly placed and wildly expensive extensions , so that a 5-foot-2 Bachelor contestant ’ s head ends up looking like it weighs more than she does .
There are plenty of hair salons that will give you influencer hair should you choose to pay hundreds or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there ’ s one that over the past year or so has become nearly synonymous with the genre : Habit Salon , and more specifically its owner , Chrissy Rasmussen .
Even before the pandemic , influencers deemed Chrissy worth the trip from Los Angeles to Arizona ; for years , her popular Instagram @ hairby_chrissy documented the hair transformations of recognizable reality TV stars , YouTube vloggers , and style bloggers .
This year , she opened a West Hollywood offshoot , presumably to be closer to her target demographic .
Because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now includes TikTokers .
By summer , massively popular TikTok influencers were starting to appear on Hair by Chrissy ’ s social media pages .
It was on these posts that viewers noticed a potential scandal : Despite large groups of clients and employees seen in the videos , there wasn ’ t a mask in sight .
You can probably guess what happened next : Commenters flooded not only Hair by Chrissy ’ s TikTok page but also her Instagram and Yelp reviews .
Complaints about safety measures also evolved into criticism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hashtags like # hairbychrissyblockme and # hairbychrissyvibes are full of parody videos of the salon ’ s signature transformations .
“ Hair by Chrissy slander TikTok is my new favorite place to be it ’ s like every other video someone is coming for their neck and I ’ m here for it , ” reads the caption on one popular video .
By October , “ Hair by Chrissy ” had become its own meme , a means of expressing frustration at influencers ’ disregard for social distancing during the pandemic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ perfect punching bag for average teens who watch famous TikTokers gleefully live their lives , while they have to stay home from school and can no longer participate in the kinds of activities that make being a high schooler bearable .
It ’ s more than a fair critique : As Morgan Sung notes at Mashable , “ If you don ’ t want to be shamed by Gen Z ’ s incredible talent for coming up with painfully specific insults , consider wearing a mask.
” I think it ’ s just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ general , or at least what it ’ s come to stand for .
Hair By Chrissy ’ s factory-like approach , chronicled in dozens of identical videos in which a beautiful woman enters the salon and leaves with the exact same uncanny valley mermaid hair , is a microcosm of the monotony of female beauty standards on social media .
The collective distaste for this specific salon may have less to do with the lack of masks ( influencers who ’ ve been filmed at giant parties clearly don ’ t care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that apparently in order to be considered a hot girl online , you have to get the same fillers , the same lashes , and the same Hair by Chrissy extensions as a certain segment of LA aspiring whatevers .
It ’ s clear that we ’ re all sick of this — consider the popularity of intentionally bizarre cool-girl face filters !
— which means that with enough time , the look will become played out .
But yeah , until then , they should definitely be wearing masks .
• In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an app marketing itself as an “ edgier ” version of TikTok , was quick to bring on celebrity investors and paid TikTok stars to join its platform , according to a report from the Times ’ s Taylor Lorenz .
The company has rented mansions , leased cars , and gifted its creators production equipment ( including at least one helicopter ) to get them to stay there , to the point where creators joke about how desperate it is .
• This isn ’ t all that surprising , considering this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s founders and their history of alleged fraud .
The company is also rather litigious — it ’ s suing an app tracker that disputed Triller ’ s claim that it had 250 million downloads ( according to the tracker , it was more like 52 million ) .
Triller also happens to be the favorite shortform video app of President Trump , and followers of QAnon .
Do with that information what you will .
• Last week , the company/art collective MSCHF paid TikTok users to make videos about how awful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 50 , all you had to do is film a TikTok about Fashion Nova stealing designs and using sweatshop labor , and the resulting video had to get 25,000 views .
It ’ s over now , but they ’ d like you to know that “ these companies are still terrible.
” • The co-head of United Talent Agency ’ s digital division is leaving to become the president of D ’ Amelio Family Enterprises , a media company led by teen TikTok stars Charli and Dixie and their parents Marc @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be as big as any family that have taken over American media , ” he said .
• Here ’ s a really nice story from Julia Alexander at The Verge about how the skateboarding community is a lot more welcoming for women on TikTok than in real life .
• Here ’ s another really nice story from Colleen Stinchcombe at Eater about how TikTok star Teena Thach is boosting BIPOC-owned Seattle restaurants while going viral on TikTok .
The dystopian YA novel your 12-year-old self would definitely have a poster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our resource-intensive work , and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Hello from The Goods’ twice-weekly newsletter! On Tuesdays, internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings uses this space to update you all on what’s been going on in the world of TikTok. Is there something you want to see more of? Less of? Different of? Email rebecca.jennings@vox.com, and subscribe to The Goods’ newsletter here.
Influencer hair, the Instagrammifed cousin of TV hair, is one of those things where you know it when you see it: It’s always a little too long, a little too thick, a little too perfectly “beachy” when literally nobody’s hair has ever looked like that at the beach. Of course, there’s no way it could, because influencer hair isn’t their real hair: It is made of a lot of expertly placed and wildly expensive extensions, so that a 5-foot-2 Bachelor contestant’s head ends up looking like it weighs more than she does.
There are plenty of hair salons that will give you influencer hair should you choose to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for it, but there’s one that over the past year or so has become nearly synonymous with the genre: Habit Salon, and more specifically its owner, Chrissy Rasmussen.
Even before the pandemic, influencers deemed Chrissy worth the trip from Los Angeles to Arizona; for years, her popular Instagram @hairby_chrissy documented the hair transformations of recognizable reality TV stars, YouTube vloggers, and style bloggers. This year, she opened a West Hollywood offshoot, presumably to be closer to her target demographic.
Because it’s 2020, that demographic now includes TikTokers. By summer, massively popular TikTok influencers were starting to appear on Hair by Chrissy’s social media pages. It was on these posts that viewers noticed a potential scandal: Despite large groups of clients and employees seen in the videos, there wasn’t a mask in sight.
You can probably guess what happened next: Commenters flooded not only Hair by Chrissy’s TikTok page but also her Instagram and Yelp reviews. Complaints about safety measures also evolved into criticism of Chrissy’s hairstyles themselves — hashtags like #hairbychrissyblockme and #hairbychrissyvibes are full of parody videos of the salon’s signature transformations. “Hair by Chrissy slander TikTok is my new favorite place to be it’s like every other video someone is coming for their neck and I’m here for it,” reads the caption on one popular video.
By October, “Hair by Chrissy” had become its own meme, a means of expressing frustration at influencers’ disregard for social distancing during the pandemic. Habit Salon and its owner are a perfect punching bag for average teens who watch famous TikTokers gleefully live their lives, while they have to stay home from school and can no longer participate in the kinds of activities that make being a high schooler bearable. It’s more than a fair critique: As Morgan Sung notes at Mashable, “If you don’t want to be shamed by Gen Z’s incredible talent for coming up with painfully specific insults, consider wearing a mask.”
I think it’s just as much critique of influencer hair in general, or at least what it’s come to stand for. Hair By Chrissy’s factory-like approach, chronicled in dozens of identical videos in which a beautiful woman enters the salon and leaves with the exact same uncanny valley mermaid hair, is a microcosm of the monotony of female beauty standards on social media. The collective distaste for this specific salon may have less to do with the lack of masks (influencers who’ve been filmed at giant parties clearly don’t care anyway), but with the idea that apparently in order to be considered a hot girl online, you have to get the same fillers, the same lashes, and the same Hair by Chrissy extensions as a certain segment of LA aspiring whatevers. It’s clear that we’re all sick of this — consider the popularity of intentionally bizarre cool-girl face filters! — which means that with enough time, the look will become played out. But yeah, until then, they should definitely be wearing masks.
TikTok in the news
In other juicy business drama, Triller, an app marketing itself as an “edgier” version of TikTok, was quick to bring on celebrity investors and paid TikTok stars to join its platform, according to a report from the Times’s Taylor Lorenz. The company has rented mansions, leased cars, and gifted its creators production equipment (including at least one helicopter) to get them to stay there, to the point where creators joke about how desperate it is.
This isn’t all that surprising, considering this Wall Street Journal explainer on Triller’s founders and their history of alleged fraud. The company is also rather litigious — it’s suing an app tracker that disputed Triller’s claim that it had 250 million downloads (according to the tracker, it was more like 52 million). Triller also happens to be the favorite shortform video app of President Trump, and followers of QAnon. Do with that information what you will.
Last week, the company/art collective MSCHF paid TikTok users to make videos about how awful certain brands are. Example: For $50, all you had to do is film a TikTok about Fashion Nova stealing designs and using sweatshop labor, and the resulting video had to get 25,000 views. It’s over now, but they’d like you to know that “these companies are still terrible.”
The co-head of United Talent Agency’s digital division is leaving to become the president of D’Amelio Family Enterprises, a media company led by teen TikTok stars Charli and Dixie and their parents Marc and Heidi. “I think they could be as big as any family that have taken over American media,” he said.
Here’s a really nice story from Julia Alexander at The Verge about how the skateboarding community is a lot more welcoming for women on TikTok than in real life.
Here’s another really nice story from Colleen Stinchcombe at Eater about how TikTok star Teena Thach is boosting BIPOC-owned Seattle restaurants while going viral on TikTok.
Stevie Nicks! Stevie Nicks! Stevie Nicks!
One Last Thing
The dystopian YA novel your 12-year-old self would definitely have a poster of.


vox--2020-10-20--Can a pair of jeans kill the coronavirus?

Are we asking too much from our jeans ?
Maybe .
They ’ re expected to wick sweat , sculpt our behinds , and provide full-body motion for squats and lunges , all while exuding a cool-but-not-trying-too-hard vibe .
And now , in these After Times , they ’ re also supposed to keep the coronavirus — the same one that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide and sent whole economies crashing — at bay .
Possibly .
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical , but that isn ’ t stopping denim brands such as Diesel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from promoting jeans purported to squelch any traces of SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes Covid-19 , that presume to land on their surfaces .
They ’ re in good company .
Italy ’ s Albini Group , which supplies dress shirts to luxury brands like Armani and Prada , is touting new Viroformula fabrics that use silver to “ inhibit viruses and kill bacteria upon contact on the surface in a few minutes.
” In London , Vollebak wove 7 miles of copper , another purported germ slayer , to create a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ new era of disease on Earth.
” US Denim Mills , which manufactures sustainable denim clothing in Pakistan , is inoculating its antiviral collection , dubbed “ Safe for US , ” with silver , copper , and the less commonly used peppermint .
Los Angeles company Lambs sells a “ snapback ” glove you can slip on when opening doors and let dangle from your belt loop when you don ’ t need it .
It ’ s clad in a patented silver-threaded fabric that “ prevents virus or microbe accumulation.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thin air .
Antimicrobial textile finishes , the secret sauce behind BO-blasting gym shorts and sports bras , have been targeting odor-causing bacteria for decades , though few if any made claims of killing viruses , which are a different type of microorganism altogether .
Buoyed by the cresting popularity of “ athleisure ” that blurred the lines between activewear and everyday clothing in the early 2010s , the products enjoyed a rapid ascendancy .
Their foothold slipped several rungs a few years ago , however , after studies emerged that silver nanoparticles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ breach body tissues and potentially disrupt cellular processes or damage DNA .
Some experts suggested at the time that encapsulating ourselves in bacteria-zapping clothing could even throw our microbiomes — that is , the trillions of naturally occurring microorganisms , including those on our skin , that are essential to healthy bodily functions — out of whack .
Warnings also sounded that nanoscale silver , which is invisible to the human eye , could slough off during laundry , contaminating wastewater and seeping into rivers , lakes , and wetlands to kill fish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year ago , talking to brands , a lot of them were moving away from these anti-odor treatments because they didn ’ t see the benefits really outweighing the risks , ” says Martin Mulvihill , a researcher and adviser at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry and the co-founder of Safer Made , a Connecticut venture capital fund that invests in technologies that reduce human exposure to toxic chemicals .
“ They basically saw these things don ’ t really work that well to prevent odor — maybe a little bit for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most part they couldn ’ t justify the cost of using potentially harmful chemicals.
” But Covid-19 has brought the category surging back with a vengeance , rejiggered for a new age of hypervigilance and anxiety wherein invisible dangers lurk in every grocery aisle , classroom , and public park .
Though still silver-based , these new formulations incorporate macro rather than nano versions , do not alter the skin ’ s microflora , and are certified free of harmful substances by textiles-testing standard-bearers such as Bluesign and Oeko-Tex , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re actually doing any good is a good question ” But Mulvihill sees them as more of the same-old , dusted off the shelf because a marketing opportunity suddenly presented itself .
“ I was disappointed because I saw these things kind of cycling out of the supply chain , and now they ’ ve gotten a huge boost , ” he says .
“ And whether or not they ’ re actually doing any good is a good question.
” They might confuse people even further .
Certainly consumers don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for .
In March — when the lockdowns started — retail intelligence platform Edited saw a 133 percent spike in the number of products described online as containing antibacterial technology compared with the month before , as safety and hygiene suddenly sprang “ front of mind , ” says Kayla Marci , an Edited market analyst .
But as their names imply , antibacterial treatments target bacteria , whereas antivirals zone in on viruses — meaning those products wouldn ’ t work on SARS-CoV-2 anyway .
What are “ antimicrobial ” treatments , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you from ?
Antimicrobial finishes take a broad-spectrum approach , blitzing viruses , bacteria , and other pathogenic microorganisms with equal aplomb — in theory , anyway .
Companies sometimes “ promote ” an antibacterial treatment to an antimicrobial one by tweaking the dose of the chemical , which has to be stronger to snuff out viruses .
That ’ s basically what Polygiene did when it launched ViralOff , its antiviral technology , in April , not long after Covid-19 graduated from burgeoning epidemic to full-fledged pandemic .
The Swedish chemicals company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recipe infuses compression tights from Adidas , wrinkle-free Untuckit button-downs , and women ’ s suiting from M.M.LaFleur , adapted its bacteria-inhibiting silver-chloride active ingredient to strike against SARS-CoV-2 .
It has now partnered with Diesel to bring the jean maker ’ s “ virus-fighting ” denim and “ always on ” technology to stores next spring .
The agreement is exclusive — only Diesel ’ s jeans will sport this particular treatment .
ViralOff doesn ’ t kill the coronavirus per se .
It ruptures the bubble of fatty lipid molecules that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it can ’ t replicate or hijack another host , thus curbing “ any further evildoing , ” says Polygiene ’ s marketing manager Niklas Brosnan .
In September , Polygiene declared itself the world ’ s first ISO-approved commercial textiles treatment to reduce SARS-CoV-2 by more than 99 percent over two hours , which Brosnan says bodes well not only for consumers but also for shop assistants who don ’ t have to sanitize or sequester a garment just because someone tried it on .
The treatment , which is applied to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ production , is rated for 20 washes without a decline in efficacy .
Since any garment will inevitably shed fibers — along with any protective chemical — when wrung through the spin cycle , for best performance ( and maximum planet-friendliness ) Polygiene advises consumers to wash less frequently and only when necessary .
( The sustainability angle is something the company takes pains to emphasize .
“ The less you wash things , the better they ’ re going to hold up , ” Brosnan says .
“ And , of course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ savings as well.
” ) One downside : Consumers can ’ t reapply ViralOff on depleted garments because the company has strict controls about the chemical saturation per weight of fabric .
Once it ’ s gone , it ’ s gone .
Hoi Kwan Lam , chief marketing officer at HeiQ , the Swiss firm imbuing all new jeans from DL1961 and Warp + Weft with its Viroblock treatment , recently showed off over Zoom a sleek reapplication spray currently being validated for consumer use .
( The finish has been tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 140 degrees Fahrenheit . )
“ We haven ’ t shown this to press yet , ” she says with a tone of glee .
“ But we plan to go to market really soon.
” First developed in response to the Ebola crisis in 2013 , then swiftly revalidated as soon as the first coronavirus warning signs came out of Wuhan in China , Viroblock has been tested according to ISO standards to reduce concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 and other types of viruses by 99.9 percent in 30 minutes , Lam says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manufacturers who have overwhelmed the company with urgent requests .
A zipper manufacturer worked with HeiQ to create the “ world ’ s first antimicrobial zipper.
” It ’ s even developing an “ antiviral mattress ” with Serta Simmons Bedding .
Lam describes the treatment as a “ silver and vesicle ” technology that uses globules of encapsulated fat known as liposomes to drain the virus ’ s membrane of its cholesterol content and leave its innards vulnerable to attack by silver ions .
Not that HeiQ can say any of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ EPA and FDA regulations , neither HeiQ nor Polygiene — nor the brands they work with — can make claims , however tangentially , that might be construed as medical assertions .
Companies without explicit approval to do so can be subject to legal action such as seizures or injunctions .
Rather , companies are limited to either describing antimicrobial treatments as protecting the textile itself or employing euphemisms like “ self-sanitizing ” and letting customers connect the dots .
“ We can not talk about the transferred benefit to the users themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might not be effective , but they may also be here to stay With apparel spending poised to shrink by as much as 30 percent this year , according to McKinsey & Company , it stands to reason that brands and retailers are desperate to do something — anything — to win back hearts and wallets .
Denim , in particular , has ceded its supremacy to sweatpants , leggings , and other soft , elasticized bottoms as we spend increasing amounts of time at home .
G-Star Raw , Lucky Brand , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the aftermath of the outbreak .
Levi ’ s third-quarter sales tumbled 27 percent year over year because of reduced traffic due to lockdown-related store closures .
Could antimicrobial jeans be partly born of desperation ?
“ The rise of the ‘ sterilized society ’ will drive demand for all sorts of products claiming to reduce microbes , bacteria , and other nasties ” “ Denim losses have recovered somewhat since the depths of the pandemic ; however , sales are still down compared to last year , ” says Neil Saunders , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a research firm and consultancy .
Whether the Hail Mary works remains to be seen .
Slumping consumer demand isn ’ t because denim is seen as unsanitary but because people are going out less and dressing down more .
Still , Saunders doesn ’ t see this trend going away soon , even if we manage to get a handle on this contagion .
“ The rise of the ‘ sterilized society ’ will drive demand for all sorts of products claiming to reduce microbes , bacteria , and other nasties , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Diesel CEO Massimo Piombini says the brand ’ s upcoming jeans , which will not be more expensive than its untreated ones , are an “ important tool ” to offer its customers .
“ We ’ re already protecting ourselves from coronavirus with masks , visors , and hand sanitizer , ” he wrote in an email .
“ Now we can add the latest must-have in our Covid-fighting [ arsenal ] with antiviral clothing.
” Washing , which people are doing more of , he says , takes time , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ puts a huge strain on the environment.
” The ViralOff jeans would mitigate this need .
The HeiQ-enhanced jeans from DL1961 and Warp + Weft won ’ t cost any extra , either , says Ryan Lombard , PR manager at DL1961 — which falls under the same parent company , Pakistan ’ s Artistic Denim Mills , as Warp + Weft .
“ This is just an added benefit to protect our customers , ” he says .
Even so , questions continue to swirl around the effectiveness of antimicrobial clothing as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be a different matter ; as far as we know , the main way the virus spreads is through respiratory droplets and aerosols spewed by talking , coughing , and sneezing , not via surfaces below the neck .
It ’ s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges people to practice hand hygiene , wear masks , and maintain a physical distance of 6 feet from others , rather than rely on nostrums and quick fixes .
The coronavirus is also blessedly susceptible to soap .
Washing clothes with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whirl in the dryer is enough to remove any SARS-CoV-2 that might have hitched a ride , however unlikely .
“ I worry in this situation , ” says Saskia Popescu , an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at George Mason University .
“ There ’ s a lot of selling of products , based off fear , that really aren ’ t going to be effective .
I would rather people be vigilant in masking , distancing , hand hygiene , cleaning and disinfection , and avoiding crowded indoor settings.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ selling of products , based off fear , that really aren ’ t going to be effective ” Even more worrisome than possible “ Covid-washing , ” say scientists like Mulvehill of Safer Made , is the current scorched-earth approach to germ warfare that could roll back years of efforts to tamp down the harsh chemistries we ’ ve been inflicting on our environments , often to the detriment of our overcoddled immune systems , which need “ good bacteria ” to thrive and beat off disease .
It makes sense , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deploy maximum firepower and leave nothing to chance , yet Mulvehill isn ’ t sure if this is the “ right response in the long term ” in all but the riskiest of environments ( read : hospitals ) .
And while the EPA and the FDA take measures to sort the quacks from the credible for most health products — like , say , bogus vaccines or unregistered disinfectants — clothes , he says , are “ much more of a Wild West.
” For Ashley J .
Holding , an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Solutions , a circular economy consultancy in Manchester , England , antimicrobial textiles could complicate existing attempts to manage the deluge of garment waste — thanks , fast fashion — flooding landfills every day , especially if prognostications that such treatments will become the new normal come to pass .
Though the science is scant , biocides may stymie the biodegradability of natural fibers , since microbes are responsible for breaking down organic matter .
Textile recyclers , already hesitant about reintroducing materials that could threaten product safety due to uncertain chemical content @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including more additives of dubious provenance , though the reality is that we simply don ’ t know what will happen .
“ It ’ s a question of scale and proportion , really , ” Holding says .
It ’ s also important to note that not all antimicrobials are created equal , cautions Rachel McQueen , an associate professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in textile science .
Not every technology that claims to stifle viruses will live up to its hype or translate seamlessly from sterile lab conditions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snake oil salesmen will , unfortunately , always abound .
Buying from reputable , “ tried-and-true ” companies , McQueen says , is key , though she admits her own personal selection would be fairly narrow .
“ Maybe I would wear a mask [ with ] effective antimicrobials on it , ” McQueen allows .
“ Jeans , probably not.
” Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as @ @ @ @ @

Are we asking too much from our jeans? Maybe. They’re expected to wick sweat, sculpt our behinds, and provide full-body motion for squats and lunges, all while exuding a cool-but-not-trying-too-hard vibe. And now, in these After Times, they’re also supposed to keep the coronavirus — the same one that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide and sent whole economies crashing — at bay. Possibly.
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, but that isn’t stopping denim brands such as Diesel, DL1961, and Warp + Weft from promoting jeans purported to squelch any traces of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, that presume to land on their surfaces.
They’re in good company. Italy’s Albini Group, which supplies dress shirts to luxury brands like Armani and Prada, is touting new Viroformula fabrics that use silver to “inhibit viruses and kill bacteria upon contact on the surface in a few minutes.” In London, Vollebak wove 7 miles of copper, another purported germ slayer, to create a “full metal jacket” for a “new era of disease on Earth.” US Denim Mills, which manufactures sustainable denim clothing in Pakistan, is inoculating its antiviral collection, dubbed “Safe for US,” with silver, copper, and the less commonly used peppermint. Los Angeles company Lambs sells a “snapback” glove you can slip on when opening doors and let dangle from your belt loop when you don’t need it. It’s clad in a patented silver-threaded fabric that “prevents virus or microbe accumulation.”
None of these manifested out of thin air. Antimicrobial textile finishes, the secret sauce behind BO-blasting gym shorts and sports bras, have been targeting odor-causing bacteria for decades, though few if any made claims of killing viruses, which are a different type of microorganism altogether.
Buoyed by the cresting popularity of “athleisure” that blurred the lines between activewear and everyday clothing in the early 2010s, the products enjoyed a rapid ascendancy. Their foothold slipped several rungs a few years ago, however, after studies emerged that silver nanoparticles, their most common ingredient, could breach body tissues and potentially disrupt cellular processes or damage DNA. Some experts suggested at the time that encapsulating ourselves in bacteria-zapping clothing could even throw our microbiomes — that is, the trillions of naturally occurring microorganisms, including those on our skin, that are essential to healthy bodily functions — out of whack. Warnings also sounded that nanoscale silver, which is invisible to the human eye, could slough off during laundry, contaminating wastewater and seeping into rivers, lakes, and wetlands to kill fish and other aquatic life.
“A year ago, talking to brands, a lot of them were moving away from these anti-odor treatments because they didn’t see the benefits really outweighing the risks,” says Martin Mulvihill, a researcher and adviser at the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry and the co-founder of Safer Made, a Connecticut venture capital fund that invests in technologies that reduce human exposure to toxic chemicals. “They basically saw these things don’t really work that well to prevent odor — maybe a little bit for polyester on workout clothes — but for the most part they couldn’t justify the cost of using potentially harmful chemicals.”
But Covid-19 has brought the category surging back with a vengeance, rejiggered for a new age of hypervigilance and anxiety wherein invisible dangers lurk in every grocery aisle, classroom, and public park. Though still silver-based, these new formulations incorporate macro rather than nano versions, do not alter the skin’s microflora, and are certified free of harmful substances by textiles-testing standard-bearers such as Bluesign and Oeko-Tex, according to their manufacturers.
“Whether or not they’re actually doing any good is a good question”
But Mulvihill sees them as more of the same-old, dusted off the shelf because a marketing opportunity suddenly presented itself. “I was disappointed because I saw these things kind of cycling out of the supply chain, and now they’ve gotten a huge boost,” he says. “And whether or not they’re actually doing any good is a good question.”
They might confuse people even further. Certainly consumers don’t always know what to look for. In March — when the lockdowns started — retail intelligence platform Edited saw a 133 percent spike in the number of products described online as containing antibacterial technology compared with the month before, as safety and hygiene suddenly sprang “front of mind,” says Kayla Marci, an Edited market analyst. But as their names imply, antibacterial treatments target bacteria, whereas antivirals zone in on viruses — meaning those products wouldn’t work on SARS-CoV-2 anyway.
What are “antimicrobial” treatments, and what are they supposed to protect you from?
Antimicrobial finishes take a broad-spectrum approach, blitzing viruses, bacteria, and other pathogenic microorganisms with equal aplomb — in theory, anyway. Companies sometimes “promote” an antibacterial treatment to an antimicrobial one by tweaking the dose of the chemical, which has to be stronger to snuff out viruses. That’s basically what Polygiene did when it launched ViralOff, its antiviral technology, in April, not long after Covid-19 graduated from burgeoning epidemic to full-fledged pandemic.
The Swedish chemicals company, whose signature “stay fresh” recipe infuses compression tights from Adidas, wrinkle-free Untuckit button-downs, and women’s suiting from M.M.LaFleur, adapted its bacteria-inhibiting silver-chloride active ingredient to strike against SARS-CoV-2. It has now partnered with Diesel to bring the jean maker’s “virus-fighting” denim and “always on” technology to stores next spring. The agreement is exclusive — only Diesel’s jeans will sport this particular treatment.
ViralOff doesn’t kill the coronavirus per se. It ruptures the bubble of fatty lipid molecules that surround the pathogen, inactivating it so it can’t replicate or hijack another host, thus curbing “any further evildoing,” says Polygiene’s marketing manager Niklas Brosnan. In September, Polygiene declared itself the world’s first ISO-approved commercial textiles treatment to reduce SARS-CoV-2 by more than 99 percent over two hours, which Brosnan says bodes well not only for consumers but also for shop assistants who don’t have to sanitize or sequester a garment just because someone tried it on.
The treatment, which is applied to the fabric at the finishing stages of production, is rated for 20 washes without a decline in efficacy. Since any garment will inevitably shed fibers — along with any protective chemical — when wrung through the spin cycle, for best performance (and maximum planet-friendliness) Polygiene advises consumers to wash less frequently and only when necessary. (The sustainability angle is something the company takes pains to emphasize. “The less you wash things, the better they’re going to hold up,” Brosnan says. “And, of course, that provides a much bigger energy savings as well.”)
One downside: Consumers can’t reapply ViralOff on depleted garments because the company has strict controls about the chemical saturation per weight of fabric. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Hoi Kwan Lam, chief marketing officer at HeiQ, the Swiss firm imbuing all new jeans from DL1961 and Warp + Weft with its Viroblock treatment, recently showed off over Zoom a sleek reapplication spray currently being validated for consumer use. (The finish has been tested to last up to 40 washes at 140 degrees Fahrenheit.) “We haven’t shown this to press yet,” she says with a tone of glee. “But we plan to go to market really soon.”
First developed in response to the Ebola crisis in 2013, then swiftly revalidated as soon as the first coronavirus warning signs came out of Wuhan in China, Viroblock has been tested according to ISO standards to reduce concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 and other types of viruses by 99.9 percent in 30 minutes, Lam says, making its technology especially appealing to face-mask manufacturers who have overwhelmed the company with urgent requests. A zipper manufacturer worked with HeiQ to create the “world’s first antimicrobial zipper.” It’s even developing an “antiviral mattress” with Serta Simmons Bedding.
Lam describes the treatment as a “silver and vesicle” technology that uses globules of encapsulated fat known as liposomes to drain the virus’s membrane of its cholesterol content and leave its innards vulnerable to attack by silver ions. Not that HeiQ can say any of this in the United States: Because of EPA and FDA regulations, neither HeiQ nor Polygiene — nor the brands they work with — can make claims, however tangentially, that might be construed as medical assertions. Companies without explicit approval to do so can be subject to legal action such as seizures or injunctions. Rather, companies are limited to either describing antimicrobial treatments as protecting the textile itself or employing euphemisms like “self-sanitizing” and letting customers connect the dots. “We cannot talk about the transferred benefit to the users themselves,” Lam says.
Virus-fighting clothing might not be effective, but they may also be here to stay
With apparel spending poised to shrink by as much as 30 percent this year, according to McKinsey & Company, it stands to reason that brands and retailers are desperate to do something — anything — to win back hearts and wallets. Denim, in particular, has ceded its supremacy to sweatpants, leggings, and other soft, elasticized bottoms as we spend increasing amounts of time at home. G-Star Raw, Lucky Brand, and True Religion filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the outbreak. Levi’s third-quarter sales tumbled 27 percent year over year because of reduced traffic due to lockdown-related store closures. Could antimicrobial jeans be partly born of desperation?
“The rise of the ‘sterilized society’ will drive demand for all sorts of products claiming to reduce microbes, bacteria, and other nasties”
“Denim losses have recovered somewhat since the depths of the pandemic; however, sales are still down compared to last year,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at GlobalData, a research firm and consultancy. Whether the Hail Mary works remains to be seen. Slumping consumer demand isn’t because denim is seen as unsanitary but because people are going out less and dressing down more. Still, Saunders doesn’t see this trend going away soon, even if we manage to get a handle on this contagion. “The rise of the ‘sterilized society’ will drive demand for all sorts of products claiming to reduce microbes, bacteria, and other nasties, including apparel,” he says.
Diesel CEO Massimo Piombini says the brand’s upcoming jeans, which will not be more expensive than its untreated ones, are an “important tool” to offer its customers. “We’re already protecting ourselves from coronavirus with masks, visors, and hand sanitizer,” he wrote in an email. “Now we can add the latest must-have in our Covid-fighting [arsenal] with antiviral clothing.” Washing, which people are doing more of, he says, takes time, is inconvenient, and “more importantly, puts a huge strain on the environment.” The ViralOff jeans would mitigate this need.
The HeiQ-enhanced jeans from DL1961 and Warp + Weft won’t cost any extra, either, says Ryan Lombard, PR manager at DL1961 — which falls under the same parent company, Pakistan’s Artistic Denim Mills, as Warp + Weft. “This is just an added benefit to protect our customers,” he says.
Even so, questions continue to swirl around the effectiveness of antimicrobial clothing as a Covid-19 defense. Antiviral face coverings might be a different matter; as far as we know, the main way the virus spreads is through respiratory droplets and aerosols spewed by talking, coughing, and sneezing, not via surfaces below the neck. It’s why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges people to practice hand hygiene, wear masks, and maintain a physical distance of 6 feet from others, rather than rely on nostrums and quick fixes. The coronavirus is also blessedly susceptible to soap. Washing clothes with regular laundry detergent and giving them a whirl in the dryer is enough to remove any SARS-CoV-2 that might have hitched a ride, however unlikely.
“I worry in this situation,” says Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at George Mason University. “There’s a lot of selling of products, based off fear, that really aren’t going to be effective. I would rather people be vigilant in masking, distancing, hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection, and avoiding crowded indoor settings.”
“There’s a lot of selling of products, based off fear, that really aren’t going to be effective”
Even more worrisome than possible “Covid-washing,” say scientists like Mulvehill of Safer Made, is the current scorched-earth approach to germ warfare that could roll back years of efforts to tamp down the harsh chemistries we’ve been inflicting on our environments, often to the detriment of our overcoddled immune systems, which need “good bacteria” to thrive and beat off disease. It makes sense, at the peak of the coronavirus peril, to deploy maximum firepower and leave nothing to chance, yet Mulvehill isn’t sure if this is the “right response in the long term” in all but the riskiest of environments (read: hospitals). And while the EPA and the FDA take measures to sort the quacks from the credible for most health products — like, say, bogus vaccines or unregistered disinfectants — clothes, he says, are “much more of a Wild West.”
For Ashley J. Holding, an organic chemist and principal of Circular Materials Solutions, a circular economy consultancy in Manchester, England, antimicrobial textiles could complicate existing attempts to manage the deluge of garment waste — thanks, fast fashion — flooding landfills every day, especially if prognostications that such treatments will become the new normal come to pass.
Though the science is scant, biocides may stymie the biodegradability of natural fibers, since microbes are responsible for breaking down organic matter. Textile recyclers, already hesitant about reintroducing materials that could threaten product safety due to uncertain chemical content, may balk at the prospect of including more additives of dubious provenance, though the reality is that we simply don’t know what will happen. “It’s a question of scale and proportion, really,” Holding says.
It’s also important to note that not all antimicrobials are created equal, cautions Rachel McQueen, an associate professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in textile science. Not every technology that claims to stifle viruses will live up to its hype or translate seamlessly from sterile lab conditions to the imperfect real world, and snake oil salesmen will, unfortunately, always abound. Buying from reputable, “tried-and-true” companies, McQueen says, is key, though she admits her own personal selection would be fairly narrow.
“Maybe I would wear a mask [with] effective antimicrobials on it,” McQueen allows. “Jeans, probably not.”
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vox--2020-10-20--Texas Sen. John Cornyn is facing his first real challenge from newcomer MJ Hegar

For the second election cycle in a row , a prominent Senate Republican is facing a tough reelection campaign in Texas — a state that was once regarded as reliably red but has become one of the nation ’ s biggest battlegrounds .
But unlike in 2018 , when Democrat Beto O ’ Rourke became a cause célèbre for his near-miss against the incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz , this year ’ s Senate race hasn ’ t captured the national spotlight .
That ’ s the way the two candidates — Sen. John Cornyn , a Republican seeking a fourth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MJ Hegar — would probably prefer it .
They have sought to make this race about Texas , rather than President Donald Trump .
But in an especially polarized election year , national politics has nevertheless seeped into the race .
Cornyn , who has a reputation for being a bipartisan dealmaker in the Senate , has distanced himself from Trump , whose approval ratings have dropped in Texas since 2016 and who has only a slight edge over former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas polls .
Rather than staking his candidacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cornyn has framed his reelection campaign as a fight to save Texas from coastal liberals .
“ I think this election presents a clear choice between the people who recruited and supported MJ ’ s campaign , which want to make Texas more like California and New York , ” he said during a televised debate earlier this month .
“ I want to make the rest of the country more like Texas.
” Hegar , who ran for Congress in 2018 but has never held elected office before , has portrayed herself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She has resisted pressure to opine on what role she would play in her party if elected , while Cornyn has tried to paint her as someone who would help further the agenda of Democratic leaders .
She has been clear that , unlike other Democratic candidates nationwide , she ’ s not running against Trump .
Rather , she ’ s gone on the offensive against Cornyn , who she says has lost touch with his constituents over his 18 years in the Senate .
“ I ’ m not running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Senate , ” she told Vox in an interview .
“ The problem of John Cornyn to Texas is a thorn in our side that predates Donald Trump.
” Cornyn ’ s campaign did not respond to requests for comment .
Cornyn is still favored to win , with the latest polls showing him with anywhere from a 1- to 10-point lead , driven in part by his ability to compete with suburban and urban voters who have appeared to turn against Trump .
Hegar is within firing distance and could still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before Election Day , though early voting in Texas is already underway and will conclude on October 30 .
The Cook Political Report recently shifted its race ratings in Hegar ’ s favor from Likely Republican to Leans Republican .
Hegar , a former Air Force helicopter pilot , is leading among both Black and Hispanic voters , though she isn ’ t matching Biden ’ s support among those groups .
She raised $ 13.5 million in the third quarter , outpacing Cornyn by a 2-1 ratio , and snagged an endorsement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Democratic group Majority PAC made a late-stage $ 8.6 million ad buy on her behalf .
It ’ s also possible that , as was the case with O ’ Rourke , the polls are underestimating Hegar , who could benefit from record turnout .
The secretary of state ’ s office has reported that about 16.9 million Texans have registered to vote this year , up almost 2 million since 2016 — in part a result of the efforts of O ’ Rourke ’ s campaign and grassroots organizers to expand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is a decade more of base-building that MJ is running on top of , including the work that she ’ s doing to activate her own voters , ” Tory Gavito , a Democratic strategist and president of the donor network Way to Win , said .
“ Even if we don ’ t take the top of the ticket , we need to look for signs of growth .
There ’ s no doubt that Texas is still on the purple trajectory.
” Hegar is asking voters not to trust Cornyn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has made her health care plan a central pillar of her platform , and she ’ s hoping that resonates with voters in the middle of a pandemic that has hit Texans especially hard .
Coronavirus hospitalizations peaked over the summer after Texas became one of the first states to reopen its economy , and there have been concerning signs that Texas is due for another surge as cases have recently spiked in El Paso and North Texas .
But pandemic or not , access to health care is an issue that looms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highest uninsured rate nationwide and is one of 12 states that have yet to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act ’ s joint state-federal program that has offered health care coverage to individuals with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line ( about $ 17,600 for a single adult ) since 2016 .
Hegar , who worked for a Texas hospital system for five years , has embraced a “ Medicare-for-all-who-want-it ” system modeled after the health care system in the military .
That ’ s in line with Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t go as far as the Medicare-for-all proposal championed by progressives .
“ I believe that individuals should have the choice to stay on private insurance if they prefer or opt in to Medicare , ” Hegar told Vox .
“ We must protect the progress made by the Affordable Care Act while making much-needed improvements .
We can not go back to the past when insurance companies were able to discriminate against those with preexisting conditions or sell junk plans that leave folks vulnerable when serious health issues or injuries occur.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation have similarly run on health care , an issue that was critical to the party ’ s success in the 2018 midterms and that more than a quarter of voters , regardless of party affiliation , say is the most important issue in this presidential election .
Hegar ’ s strategy has been not only to highlight how Texans would benefit if the US expanded health care access , but also to draw attention to Cornyn ’ s history as a leading proponent of repealing and replacing the ACA in the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ executives .
Cornyn claims that , even if the ACA were repealed , he would still preserve the law ’ s protections for Americans with preexisting conditions , which most Americans support , and allow people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents ’ health insurance plans .
“ You know , preexisting conditions is something we all agree should be covered , ” he said in a campaign ad that aired earlier this month , echoing other Republican senators in close races .
But he supported the Republican-led Better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would have allowed insurers selling plans on the individual market to deny coverage or increase costs for people with preexisting conditions .
He also supported the Protect Act in 2019 , which , despite Senate Republicans ’ efforts to bill it otherwise , would allow insurers to offer “ thin coverage aimed at healthy customers , and considerably more expensive policies with comprehensive coverage for people who might actually need costly care , ” according to the LA Times .
“ It blows my mind that John Cornyn can sleep at night after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Texans , ” Hegar told Vox .
Texas ’ s changing electorate is driving Cornyn to the middle Texas is at a political turning point , largely brought on by demographic change .
The state last backed a Democrat for president in 1976 , and Republicans have held state legislative chambers and the governorship since 2003 .
But the state is becoming increasingly urban , and Hispanics are on track to become its largest population group by mid-2021 , two trends that generally favor Democrats .
That long-promised transformation has been slow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans have sought to curb voter participation : Just this year , they have banned counties from sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters , limited the number of ballot drop-off locations to just one per county , and tried to stop drive-through voting .
Nevertheless , Texas Republicans are in real strife this year up and down the ballot .
Cornyn , for his part , has been forced to shift to the center on some issues as Hegar has climbed in the polls .
That ’ s been particularly clear in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy .
Though the Republican Party has largely mirrored Trump ’ s restrictive immigration policies , Cornyn made a Spanish-language ad buy in September touting his support for the DREAM Act , which would offer a path to citizenship for 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants nationwide who came to the US as children .
The bill , which is some two decades in the making , has been blocked repeatedly in Congress , sometimes with his support and sometimes without .
He voted against versions of the bill in 2006 , 2007 , 2010 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrant advocates cite as evidence that he is no ally of so-called DREAMers .
If he really supported young unauthorized immigrants , he would have called for a vote on a standalone bill to legalize them that passed the House in 2019 , Mario Carrillo , a Texas-based spokesperson for the immigrant advocacy group America ’ s Voice , said in a statement .
But Cornyn ’ s aides have touted his support for other versions of the bill , including a 2018 proposal that coupled permanent protections for DREAMers with $ 25 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ border wall and other border security measures .
Cornyn ’ s decision to tout that vote suggests he ’ s struggling with key demographics , Gavito said .
“ Even if he emerges as the victor , there is no doubt that the organizing that has gone into Texas has pulled him to the left , ” she said .
“ It ’ s because he ’ s feeling heat , specifically among young voters , Latino voters , and multiracial suburban voters.
” Hegar and Cornyn are not O ’ Rourke and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t escape national politics entirely This Senate race isn ’ t a repeat of 2018 : Neither of the candidates has the star power of O ’ Rourke and Cruz , and they ’ re defending their records to a Texas audience , not a national one .
In 2018 , O ’ Rourke , then a three-term Congress member , traveled to all 254 counties in Texas and livestreamed the whole journey , drawing a national following and breaking fundraising records .
Hegar , a political newcomer , had planned to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there , but that wasn ’ t possible this year due to the pandemic .
“ Hegar is plagued by what any Democrat running statewide in Texas would be plagued by , which is just scale of name recognition , ” Gavito said .
Though Hegar is still at a relative disadvantage , Cornyn suffers from his own lack of name recognition in his home state : As of late August , more than a quarter of voters had no opinion of him or didn ’ t know enough about him to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also lower than those of Cruz , a much more fiery , divisive personality in the Senate .
Both candidates have tried to tailor their messaging to Texans : Cornyn has framed the race as a battle for Texas ’ s conservative values , arguing that Hegar ’ s policies are “ too liberal for Texas.
” Hegar , for her part , has cast him as a career politician who is too steeped in Washington politics to fight for Texans .
But national politics are still playing a role as Cornyn , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ escape association with a polarizing president .
He has become more outspoken in distinguishing his politics from Trump ’ s in the final stretch before Election Day — what some have criticized as an about-face .
In a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram , he said that he disagreed with the president on issues including budget deficits , tariffs , trade agreements , and border security , but chose to voice those differences of opinion in private .
Speaking about his relationship with Trump , he likened himself to a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think they ’ re going to change their spouse , and that doesn ’ t usually work out very well.
” “ I think what we found is that we ’ re not going to change President Trump , ” he added .
“ He is who he is .
You either love him or hate him , and there ’ s not much in between .
What I tried to do is not get into public confrontations and fights with him because , as I ’ ve observed , those usually don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practice , Cornyn has frequently sided with the White House on issues ranging from trying to push through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the election to acquitting the president in his impeachment trial earlier this year .
Cornyn shouldn ’ t be able to escape that record , Hegar said .
“ What a Texan needs to be successful here is to show that they ’ re a damn Texan and not a DC spineless bootlicker , ” she told Vox .
“ That is not John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not my seat .
It is Texas ’ s seat , and it should be filled by a Texan who is going to fight for regular working families across the state and for Texas values like integrity and grit and backbone.
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For the second election cycle in a row, a prominent Senate Republican is facing a tough reelection campaign in Texas — a state that was once regarded as reliably red but has become one of the nation’s biggest battlegrounds. But unlike in 2018, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke became a cause célèbre for his near-miss against the incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, this year’s Senate race hasn’t captured the national spotlight.
That’s the way the two candidates — Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican seeking a fourth term, and his nascent Democratic challenger MJ Hegar — would probably prefer it. They have sought to make this race about Texas, rather than President Donald Trump. But in an especially polarized election year, national politics has nevertheless seeped into the race.
Cornyn, who has a reputation for being a bipartisan dealmaker in the Senate, has distanced himself from Trump, whose approval ratings have dropped in Texas since 2016 and who has only a slight edge over former Vice President Joe Biden in Texas polls. Rather than staking his candidacy on the president’s record, Cornyn has framed his reelection campaign as a fight to save Texas from coastal liberals.
“I think this election presents a clear choice between the people who recruited and supported MJ’s campaign, which want to make Texas more like California and New York,” he said during a televised debate earlier this month. “I want to make the rest of the country more like Texas.”
Hegar, who ran for Congress in 2018 but has never held elected office before, has portrayed herself as an outsider who eschews political labels. She has resisted pressure to opine on what role she would play in her party if elected, while Cornyn has tried to paint her as someone who would help further the agenda of Democratic leaders. She has been clear that, unlike other Democratic candidates nationwide, she’s not running against Trump. Rather, she’s gone on the offensive against Cornyn, who she says has lost touch with his constituents over his 18 years in the Senate.
“I’m not running for president. I’m running for Senate,” she told Vox in an interview. “The problem of John Cornyn to Texas is a thorn in our side that predates Donald Trump.”
Cornyn’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Cornyn is still favored to win, with the latest polls showing him with anywhere from a 1- to 10-point lead, driven in part by his ability to compete with suburban and urban voters who have appeared to turn against Trump. Hegar is within firing distance and could still make up ground in the final weeks before Election Day, though early voting in Texas is already underway and will conclude on October 30.
The Cook Political Report recently shifted its race ratings in Hegar’s favor from Likely Republican to Leans Republican. Hegar, a former Air Force helicopter pilot, is leading among both Black and Hispanic voters, though she isn’t matching Biden’s support among those groups. She raised $13.5 million in the third quarter, outpacing Cornyn by a 2-1 ratio, and snagged an endorsement from former President Barack Obama. And the Democratic group Majority PAC made a late-stage $8.6 million ad buy on her behalf.
It’s also possible that, as was the case with O’Rourke, the polls are underestimating Hegar, who could benefit from record turnout. The secretary of state’s office has reported that about 16.9 million Texans have registered to vote this year, up almost 2 million since 2016 — in part a result of the efforts of O’Rourke’s campaign and grassroots organizers to expand the state’s electorate.
“There is a decade more of base-building that MJ is running on top of, including the work that she’s doing to activate her own voters,” Tory Gavito, a Democratic strategist and president of the donor network Way to Win, said. “Even if we don’t take the top of the ticket, we need to look for signs of growth. There’s no doubt that Texas is still on the purple trajectory.”
Hegar is asking voters not to trust Cornyn’s promises on health care
Hegar has made her health care plan a central pillar of her platform, and she’s hoping that resonates with voters in the middle of a pandemic that has hit Texans especially hard. Coronavirus hospitalizations peaked over the summer after Texas became one of the first states to reopen its economy, and there have been concerning signs that Texas is due for another surge as cases have recently spiked in El Paso and North Texas.
But pandemic or not, access to health care is an issue that looms large in Texas, which has the highest uninsured rate nationwide and is one of 12 states that have yet to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act’s joint state-federal program that has offered health care coverage to individuals with incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line (about $17,600 for a single adult) since 2016.
Hegar, who worked for a Texas hospital system for five years, has embraced a “Medicare-for-all-who-want-it” system modeled after the health care system in the military. That’s in line with Biden’s health care plan but doesn’t go as far as the Medicare-for-all proposal championed by progressives.
“I believe that individuals should have the choice to stay on private insurance if they prefer or opt in to Medicare,” Hegar told Vox. “We must protect the progress made by the Affordable Care Act while making much-needed improvements. We cannot go back to the past when insurance companies were able to discriminate against those with preexisting conditions or sell junk plans that leave folks vulnerable when serious health issues or injuries occur.”
This year, Democratic candidates across the nation have similarly run on health care, an issue that was critical to the party’s success in the 2018 midterms and that more than a quarter of voters, regardless of party affiliation, say is the most important issue in this presidential election.
Hegar’s strategy has been not only to highlight how Texans would benefit if the US expanded health care access, but also to draw attention to Cornyn’s history as a leading proponent of repealing and replacing the ACA in the Senate and of receiving campaign contributions from pharmaceutical executives. Cornyn claims that, even if the ACA were repealed, he would still preserve the law’s protections for Americans with preexisting conditions, which most Americans support, and allow people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans.
“You know, preexisting conditions is something we all agree should be covered,” he said in a campaign ad that aired earlier this month, echoing other Republican senators in close races.
But he supported the Republican-led Better Care Reconciliation Act in 2017, which would have allowed insurers selling plans on the individual market to deny coverage or increase costs for people with preexisting conditions. He also supported the Protect Act in 2019, which, despite Senate Republicans’ efforts to bill it otherwise, would allow insurers to offer “thin coverage aimed at healthy customers, and considerably more expensive policies with comprehensive coverage for people who might actually need costly care,” according to the LA Times.
“It blows my mind that John Cornyn can sleep at night after trying to rip away care from millions of Texans,” Hegar told Vox.
Texas’s changing electorate is driving Cornyn to the middle
Texas is at a political turning point, largely brought on by demographic change. The state last backed a Democrat for president in 1976, and Republicans have held state legislative chambers and the governorship since 2003. But the state is becoming increasingly urban, and Hispanics are on track to become its largest population group by mid-2021, two trends that generally favor Democrats.
That long-promised transformation has been slow to arrive, in part because state Republicans have sought to curb voter participation: Just this year, they have banned counties from sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters, limited the number of ballot drop-off locations to just one per county, and tried to stop drive-through voting. Nevertheless, Texas Republicans are in real strife this year up and down the ballot.
Cornyn, for his part, has been forced to shift to the center on some issues as Hegar has climbed in the polls. That’s been particularly clear in the way he talks about his immigration policy.
Though the Republican Party has largely mirrored Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, Cornyn made a Spanish-language ad buy in September touting his support for the DREAM Act, which would offer a path to citizenship for 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants nationwide who came to the US as children. The bill, which is some two decades in the making, has been blocked repeatedly in Congress, sometimes with his support and sometimes without.
He voted against versions of the bill in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2018, which immigrant advocates cite as evidence that he is no ally of so-called DREAMers. If he really supported young unauthorized immigrants, he would have called for a vote on a standalone bill to legalize them that passed the House in 2019, Mario Carrillo, a Texas-based spokesperson for the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice, said in a statement.
But Cornyn’s aides have touted his support for other versions of the bill, including a 2018 proposal that coupled permanent protections for DREAMers with $25 billion in funding for Trump’s border wall and other border security measures.
Cornyn’s decision to tout that vote suggests he’s struggling with key demographics, Gavito said.
“Even if he emerges as the victor, there is no doubt that the organizing that has gone into Texas has pulled him to the left,” she said. “It’s because he’s feeling heat, specifically among young voters, Latino voters, and multiracial suburban voters.”
Hegar and Cornyn are not O’Rourke and Cruz — but they still can’t escape national politics entirely
This Senate race isn’t a repeat of 2018: Neither of the candidates has the star power of O’Rourke and Cruz, and they’re defending their records to a Texas audience, not a national one.
In 2018, O’Rourke, then a three-term Congress member, traveled to all 254 counties in Texas and livestreamed the whole journey, drawing a national following and breaking fundraising records. Hegar, a political newcomer, had planned to do the same to get her name out there, but that wasn’t possible this year due to the pandemic.
“Hegar is plagued by what any Democrat running statewide in Texas would be plagued by, which is just scale of name recognition,” Gavito said.
Though Hegar is still at a relative disadvantage, Cornyn suffers from his own lack of name recognition in his home state: As of late August, more than a quarter of voters had no opinion of him or didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion. His approval ratings are also lower than those of Cruz, a much more fiery, divisive personality in the Senate.
Both candidates have tried to tailor their messaging to Texans: Cornyn has framed the race as a battle for Texas’s conservative values, arguing that Hegar’s policies are “too liberal for Texas.” Hegar, for her part, has cast him as a career politician who is too steeped in Washington politics to fight for Texans.
But national politics are still playing a role as Cornyn, despite his best efforts, cannot escape association with a polarizing president.
He has become more outspoken in distinguishing his politics from Trump’s in the final stretch before Election Day — what some have criticized as an about-face. In a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, he said that he disagreed with the president on issues including budget deficits, tariffs, trade agreements, and border security, but chose to voice those differences of opinion in private.
Speaking about his relationship with Trump, he likened himself to a “lot of women who get married and think they’re going to change their spouse, and that doesn’t usually work out very well.”
“I think what we found is that we’re not going to change President Trump,” he added. “He is who he is. You either love him or hate him, and there’s not much in between. What I tried to do is not get into public confrontations and fights with him because, as I’ve observed, those usually don’t end too well.”
In practice, Cornyn has frequently sided with the White House on issues ranging from trying to push through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the election to acquitting the president in his impeachment trial earlier this year.
Cornyn shouldn’t be able to escape that record, Hegar said.
“What a Texan needs to be successful here is to show that they’re a damn Texan and not a DC spineless bootlicker,” she told Vox. “That is not John Cornyn’s seat. It’s not my seat. It is Texas’s seat, and it should be filled by a Texan who is going to fight for regular working families across the state and for Texas values like integrity and grit and backbone.”