This has to be on the mind of a lot of faculty at these centers. Originally an initiative in Republican-dominated states of affirmative action for “conservative” scholars, some of them are now in states where the Democrats enjoyed victories: e.g., in Texas (where the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the state house will now be Democratic, but the state senate will remain Republican-dominated); in Ohio (where the Governor is now a Democrat, but the legislature is still dominated by Republicans); and North Carolina (where the Governor remains a Democrat, while the state Senate has a narrow Republican majority, and the state House has a Democratic majority).

While these centers were pretty clearly a waste of money, they did result in appointing some serious scholars in neglected areas (as well as appointing a fair number of hacks, including lots of members of the Strauss cult). However, I expect they will survive for now, since it’s got to be a super low priority issue for newly empowered Democrats in these states, where economic issues are front and center. I can’t see any of these newly or recently elected Democratic governors fighting a battle with state Republicans over them. (A higher priority in Texas with regard to the universities should surely be rolling back the unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment, including academic freedom, rights of faculty.)