The White House is increasingly taking aim at Republican governors who have relaxed COVID-19 restrictions, casting what President Joe Biden once described as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as a pandemic of the red states.

This shift in tone comes as the pandemic’s resurgence takes a toll on Biden’s job approval ratings, dropping him below 50% in some national polls. His top two targets are Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, chief executives of the two biggest red states and national symbols of a rival model for managing the virus, who have banned mandates for masks or vaccines.