Congressional Republicans are warming back up to holding in-person town halls after GOP leadership warned against them earlier this year.
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) held the first of three planned town halls Thursday night, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) held three town halls in one day last week, and Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO) met with protesters in his district.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who recently announced his candidacy for Florida governor, held a heated town hall earlier this week at which he was faced with critical questions regarding Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who is rumored to be toying with a 2026 Senate run, held a town hall last week ending in arrests of protesters.
Frustrated constituents began bringing their concerns over President Donald Trump’s slew of executive orders and the new DOGE to town hall meetings across the country earlier this year, leading to many viral moments of Republican members of Congress being berated in their own districts.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) went viral earlier this week after a shouting match she had with a constituent over when she would host a town hall meeting.
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Rep. Rich McCormick’s (R-GA) heated town hall went particularly viral, with a video on CNN’s TikTok reaching millions of views. McCormick told the Washington Examiner shortly after that he would not back down.
The outrage came as tens of thousands of federal workers had been fired as part of Trump’s agenda to reduce the government workforce, a result of DOGE’s budget slashing.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC) warned Republicans to stop holding in-person town hall meetings following the backlash.
Democrats responded quickly, slamming Hudson’s instruction to the conference in a statement on X and moving to hold their own town halls in Republican-held districts to push against Trump’s policies. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also launched their “Fight the Oligarchy” tour across the country.
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The two left-wing Democrats are not the only two touring and holding town halls. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) have hit the road together, holding a town hall Thursday in North Carolina in response to Hudson.
“If you’re here, and you voted for Trump in the past, my message is simple: I’m sorry you were lied to, but welcome to the team,” Frost said at a town hall.