Fauci’s Election Legacy May Outlast His Medical Tenure

The father of modern quasi elections on the hot seat, July 29, 2026

First, before I dive headfirst into a lot of bad memories, I’d like to wish a happy 11th birthday to my son, Eli. Eli is a smart kid, likes to play “last one to the truck is a Democrat” to help me hurry his sisters along when they are dragging through the parking lot, and has taken a liking to baseball just like his old man has. Last week, I took him to a Diamondbacks game and joyfully entertained three hours of questions about the grand old game.

As I recount a happy memory with my son and prepare to dish on today’s events, I can’t help but remember a moment that had me livid. It was July 23, 2020, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., and NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the long-awaited “Opening Day,” which had been pushed back thanks to draconian COVID-19 measures forced down the throats of the American people for what turned out to be the desired impact of throwing the coming election to Joe Biden. He was then spotted in the stands not giving a damn about masking and forgot there would be cameras on him:

“Baseball games for me, but not for thee, peasant. Make sure you figure out how to cut your own hair, replace the six-figure job that just got ripped out from under you, and explain to your children why we destroyed their world for a virus resembling the common cold (and that would come to cause no excess mortality in statistics).”

Straight up French Revolution stuff, right there. I have written about Fauci’s fate under the Trump 47 administration in no uncertain terms:

Fauci had an early start this morning before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which will undoubtedly obtain many great clips for Senators to circulate for reelection campaigns, while getting zero accountability or exacting zero meaningful consequences. Call it the Gowdy Doctrine, or call it whatever you want. Someone needs to ask my favorite math question related to Fauci’s deliberate botches:

Doctor, why did you make up a social distancing reference of six feet when the rest of the world used two meters? Do you realize that is a difference of six and three-quarters inches? I thought our strain was among the most deadly?

As an elections snob (or “anti-voting activist” as called by Democracy Docket), revisiting Fauci’s impact on public life from 2020-22 enrages me. I remember hearing all the time, “Why doesn’t Trump fire Fauci (and Birx)?” Well, let me answer that for you:

I ignore polling almost completely. I focus on actual votes and legitimate political trends. The map snippet you see above is from Tarrant County, Texas, centered over core Fort Worth and the suburban space to its southwest. Precincts in light yellow are precincts in which President Trump had fewer votes in 2024 than he did in 2020. Precincts in dark yellow are those in which President Trump underperformed his 2016 totals. That’s major GOP atrophy, and those are the voters who had no issue opposing Obama for eight years, but as soon as the GOP emerged with a candidate who said mean things, questioned institutions run by Fauci clones, and got in the ditch with his opponents to punch back, they bolted. My mapping can find them in your counties, too, and they are critical for identifying in modern campaigns (email me at skeshel@protonmail.com for a quote).

Had Trump done what everyone wanted, and unceremoniously shitcanned the little twerp, the pearl clutching GOP coalition would have stood in abject horror as this vaunted member of the valiant medical establishment slinked away to a CNN contributor position. They were the ones, after all, screeching at you on your neighborhood Facebook groups to stop killing grandmas and stop caring so much about your career progress.

That is why Fauci didn’t get fired.

Yet, as I will demonstrate in the balance of this article, Fauci’s legacy with regard to American elections threatens to outlive his tenure as an in-house medical tyrant.