Plenty of members of Congress have held town halls in recent weeks, and many of the events have had one thing in common: There are some unsatisfied voters out there, and they’re eager to give their elected representatives an earful.
It’s reached the point at which some Republicans are even clinging to the baseless idea that their unhappy constituents are secretly being paid to criticize them.
In the coming weeks and months, however, we’re likely to see fewer examples of angry town hall sessions — not because American voters will be happier, but rather, because more GOP lawmakers will avoid the public meetings altogether. NBC News reported:
Congressional Republicans are again being advised against holding in-person town halls after several instances of lawmakers being berated by attendees went viral. The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the Hill committee that works to get Republicans elected to the House, told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that there were more efficient ways to reach constituents than in-person town halls, according to two sources in the room.
According to the report, Republican Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who currently chairs the NRCC, compared the political environment in 2025 to conditions in 2017, when many Americans were outraged by Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
That’s a compelling comparison — I’ve made it myself — but let’s not forget that a year after those tumultuous 2017 town hall meetings, Democrats had a net gain of more than 40 U.S. House seats in the 2018 midterm elections and retook the majority in the chamber.
Hudson’s analogy, in other words, probably did not comfort his GOP brethren.
Later in the day, Hudson told reporters that “in-person town halls are no longer effective because Democrat activists are threatening democracy by disrupting the actual communication at town halls.”
That’s one way to look at matters. The better way is to realize that someone is “threatening democracy” right now, but it’s not voters.
Nevertheless, the NRCC chair wasn’t alone: House Speaker Mike Johnson also advised his members to stop holding town halls. The Louisiana Republican suggested that telephone events and small groups would be preferable to larger forums. This is a classic example of treating a symptom instead of the problem. Sure, congressional Republicans can avoid unhappy voters, but that won’t satisfy an angry electorate. Rather, it will simply keep GOP members shielded from constituents with legitimate concerns. Canceling town halls is easy; governing effectively is hard. Republican leaders appear to be placing too much emphasis on the former, while expressing no interest whatsoever in the latter. Is it any wonder why so many voters aren’t pleased? Democratic Rep. Theresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico told Politico that Republicans “are afraid of their constituents.” By all appearances, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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