Elected officials ducking difficult questions is hardly a new phenomenon. But Republican representatives are now actively avoiding not only difficult questions but any direct contact with their constituents following a series of contentious town halls around the country. In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Republican representative Glenn Grothman, who was reelected with more than 60 percent of the vote, was met with a barrage of boos and expletives from a crowd of more than one hundred people who were upset about cuts to federal programs at the hands of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. A town hall in Asheville, North Carolina, devolved into a screaming match between Rep. Chuck Edwards and his constituents when the two-term incumbent tried to defend a number of unpopular Trump policies, including mass layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the president’s promise to dissolve the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is still helping the Tar Heel state recover from Hurricane Helene.
It’s gotten so bad for the GOP that the chair of the party’s national congressional committee has encouraged House Republicans to hold only virtual town halls, which allow moderators to filter questions and comments and to prevent embarrassing confrontations with voters that could hurt the party in next year’s midterm elections.
Desperate to find any political purchase during Trump’s second term, Senate and House Democrats launched a series of public events—dubbed “People’s Town Halls”—in Republican-held districts across the country. “If they won’t talk to their own voters, then Democrats will,” said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee. Representatives Ro Khanna and Maxwell Frost are planning to host events in California and Florida, respectively, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is set to join Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, for a series of previously planned town halls in swing districts and battleground states.
Other Democrats are eager to meet with voters. Minnesota governor and former vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is barnstorming through the Midwest, making stops in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Ohio. “There’s a responsibility in this time of chaos where elected officials need to hear what people are irritated about,” Walz said. “Democratic officials should hear the primal scream that’s coming from America and do something.”
Given the current state of the party, however, Walz and his fellow Democrats might find some of that primal screaming is directed at them as well as the Republicans. A recent NBC poll revealed that the Dems’ favorability rating among registered voters sits at 27 percent, the lowest it’s been since 1990. Only seven percent of registered voters have a “very positive” view of the party.
If Democratic leaders hope to turn those numbers around, they’ll have to do more than simply listen. They’ll also have to offer something other than the same worn-out messaging that failed to resonate with voters in the last election. For these People’s Town Halls to have their desired effect, Democrats will have to articulate a clear vision—not only for how they plan to stand up to Trump, but also for how they hope to improve the lives of average Americans by means of bold new policies. Their repeated failure to communicate such a vision is one of the main reasons Trump and the GOP are now running amok through the federal government, stripping it for parts.
Walz is right about another thing: this is a time of chaos. But, as a party, the Democrats have yet to meet the moment with the urgency it demands. The clock is ticking, and the American public is sending a message that they want someone to do something. As Republican representatives continue to hide from their constituents, the Democrats need to rush into this vacuum and fill it with something more than the over-cautious rhetoric that has made them so unpopular.
