A majority of House Republicans plan to avoid town hall meetings in their home districts during Congress’ two-week recess.
Last month, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson told his caucus to cease holding town halls in their districts after several GOP members faced angry voters. Some members held town halls despite the instruction and were yelled at by people concerned about cuts to Medicaid and Elon Musk’s influence.
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This recess, scheduled for Easter and Passover, a couple of Republicans do have town halls scheduled, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is running for governor of Florida. Both have restricted RSVPs for their upcoming town halls to residents of their respective districts.
For the most part, however, Republicans have not scheduled any town halls over the next two weeks while they are away from Washington, D.C.
At the same time, Democrats are continuing their tours to red districts. Over the past three weeks, Democrats have held over 70 town halls in dozens of states to harp on some voters’ anger over President Donald Trump and Musk’s sweeping cuts to government agencies.
Over the weekend, Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Kelley’s wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) all hosted a town hall in Tucson, Arizona.
The district is held by Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), who has avoided meeting with constituents so far during this congressional session. The invitation to the event read, “Since Rep. Juan Ciscomani refuses to show up for his constituents, we will.”
Ciscomani did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s inquiry about his lack of town halls in the district.
In Wisconsin, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), who represents a swing district in the Western portion of the state, has caught flak from his constituents over his absence in the district. Constituents have said his office canceled a district meeting in Eau Claire in February.
He has held virtual town halls, but Van Orden recently confirmed to WEAU that he has no plans to hold a town hall meeting, claiming paid agitators would infiltrate it.
“The reason we have town halls is so a constituents can speak directly to the representative and have a meaningful conversation. You can’t do that if people are just screaming at each other,” Van Orden said. “That is not an organic constituent revolt. What that is is a group of George Soros-funded agitators that have nothing to offer but angst. Just like your previous quest. That’s a terrible question.”
HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CHIEF ADVISES MEMBERS TO AVOID IN-PERSON TOWN HALLS
Other prominent figures including Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have launched tours to red districts. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have embarked on their Fighting Oligarchy tour, which has mostly gone to red districts in Arizona, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, but recently stopped in Los Angeles, where Sanders drew the largest crowd of his political career, according to his office.
“The feeling of the water rising up to our throats, the impossibility to afford anything easily, the fear of speaking up, the deeply bitter and toxic division driven more by algorithms on social media than individual thought, the crumbling of our rights and protections,” Ocasio-Cortez said in Los Angeles. “understand that all of this is what it means and what it feels like to be governed by billionaires.”