WASHINGTON — The four years of Donald Trump’s presidency saw recurring battles between red and blue states — Texas and California led opposing coalitions that faced off in the Supreme Court over the survival of the Affordable Care Act, and similar lineups of states battled over immigration policy, climate change and religious liberty.

While those sorts of interstate disputes have continued, a new battleground has emerged during President Biden’s first year — intrastate disputes pitting Democratic and Republican minorities against their states’ dominant parties.

In California, the effort to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office can best be understood as an attempt by the state’s beleaguered red regions to use the arcane process of a recall to gain the statewide victory they have been unable to achieve during regular elections.

And Texas and Florida have seen a growing revolt by officials in blue cities against Republican governors who have tried to block vaccination and masking requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That conflict escalated sharply last week as the Biden administration entered the fray, threatening to use federal power to back up local officials in fights with Republican governors, particularly Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas.

“We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children,” Biden declared Wednesday, as the Education Department publicly aired the possibility of suing states that try to block local schools’ mask mandates.

An escalating fight

For most of the opening months of Biden’s tenure, the White House sought to downplay disputes with DeSantis, Abbott and other Republicans.

Even as the rhetoric heated up this month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that “our war is not on DeSantis; it’s on the virus, which we’re trying to kneecap.”

Several factors have led to a more open confrontation — some political, others substantive.

It’s probably no coincidence that the escalation comes as the administration deals with a crisis in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have struggled to evacuate potentially tens of thousands of American citizens, as well as Afghans who worked for the U.S. military, news organizations or civil society groups. White House officials know they’ll be dealing with horrific images from Kabul for days, if not weeks, and while they can’t change the subject, they can introduce a competing story line.

But actions by the contending players in Texas and Florida also played an important role. With schools now open and hospitals in both states buckling from the wave of illness brought on by the Delta coronavirus variant, Democratic-majority metropolitan regions are increasingly pushing back against state limits on their pandemic responses.

As of Friday, four of the five largest school districts in Florida, including Miami-Dade, the fourth-largest district in the country, had voted to defy DeSantis and enforce a mask mandate.

In late July, the governor issued an executive order that barred school districts from requiring masks if parents object.

School districts in the Houston, Dallas and San Antonio areas have similarly tried to enforce mask rules, despite orders from Abbott.

The governor backed down Thursday, at least temporarily, after losing a round in the Texas Supreme Court, which allowed lawsuits by some of the school districts to continue.

In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey threatened to withhold some state assistance from school districts that require masking.

“Parents are in the driver’s seat, and it’s their right to make decisions that best fit the needs of their children,” Ducey said in a statement. “Safety recommendations are welcomed and encouraged — mandates that place more stress on students and families aren’t.”

At least eight Republican-controlled states have laws or executive orders that ban school districts from requiring masks.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all students and teachers wear masks in the classroom.

Biden’s moves

The administration has a couple of tools to support school districts that defy state orders: Biden suggested that the federal government could supply money directly to school districts to replace aid if states try to cut off funds, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Wednesday that his department could use its authority to enforce civil rights laws to block governors from acting against school districts.

“The department has the authority to investigate any state educational agency whose policies or actions may infringe on the rights of every student to access public education equally,” Cardona said in a statement.

States that try to ban mask mandates are “needlessly placing students, families and educators at risk,” the statement said.

The department has sent letters to several red states, including Texas and Florida, putting them on notice that their policies could violate federal law.

The legal path Cardona outlined is a convoluted one. The Education Department would first have to launch an investigation; then, if it found a violation, it could threaten sanctions against states. But long before that, a federal civil rights investigation would crank up the potential cost for Republican governors who continue to push the fight.

A partisan divide

Politically, however, the argument over masks plays to both sides’ core supporters.

Overall, Biden has the majority behind him. A poll by YouGov for the Economist found that 52% of American adults favor a mask requirement in schools versus 37% who don’t, with the remainder unsure.

That overall support, however, is complicated by a striking partisan divide. Democrats supported requiring masks in schools, 82% to 7%, while Republicans opposed the idea, 60% to 26%, the poll found.

A poll by Ipsos for the Axios website found even broader majority support for requiring students, staff and teachers to wear masks in schools and also found a sharp divide by party.

For Abbott, who faces right-wing opposition to his bid for a third term in 2022, and DeSantis, who has been looking past his own reelection to a possible presidential bid in 2024, keeping Republican voters united behind them outweighs the majority opinion, at least for now. Opposition to mask mandates brings together the party’s libertarian faction and its dominant Trump wing, two constituencies that Republican officeholders are loath to cross.

The Ipsos poll pointed to a limit on that GOP consensus — majorities in both parties rejected the idea of withholding money from schools that enforce mask mandates. That suggests Ducey may have maneuvered himself into a dead end on that idea. DeSantis has also threatened to cut off salaries of school officials who defy him.

For Biden, the political imperatives are straightforward. His efforts to keep the coronavirus under control have provided a relative point of strength all year. Administration officials have made clear that they believe the public will largely judge Biden on that issue and on the economy, subordinating most other topics.

Aligning himself with urban parents who believe mask requirements are key to safe schools is an easy call.

How far this confrontation will go probably will depend on the Republican governors. How much political mileage do they believe they can gain by running against their states’ major urban areas?

If they decide they want a fight, the Biden administration likely will be happy to provide one.