Most GOP Congress Members Are Avoiding Town Halls, But One Held 15 In A Week

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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.

I'm Jeepa Shivaram.

I cover the White House.

I'm Barbara Sprent.

I cover Congress.

And I'm Ashley Lopez.

I cover politics.

Okay, so today on the show, Congress is still in recess, and it's a time when traditionally members hold town halls and meet with constituents in their home districts.

Many Republicans, though, appear to be avoiding town halls this August.

But we're taking a look at one in particular who is actually embracing them.

So, Barbara, you've been spending some time with Republican Congressman Mark Alford in his home district in Missouri, and he's an outlier in having town halls at all, right?

Yeah, that's right.

He is really bucking the trend.

The NRCC, the campaign arm of the House GOP, had sent guidance earlier this year, basically telling members to avoid these in-person town halls, which can get really contentious, can turn into like yelling matches.

I think we've all seen some of the videos.

Alford is going in another direction.

He didn't just hold one this week.

He held 15.

Whoa.

Yeah, 15 over the course of four days, like spread across all sorts of counties.

His last event ended probably like a few hours before this podcast is going to post.

So he's had quite the marathon week.

Interesting.

So, okay, so when we talk about bucking the trend, I mean, Ashley,

what have these past town halls typically looked like for GOP members?

Well, right now they're not having many.

I mean, the trend is that a lot of Republicans are not holding town halls.

I mean, typically in recess, like this is a thing that members of Congress would do is they'll go to their constituents and, you know, talk about the things they did when they were there.

And one of those things would be, you know, passing the tax and spending bill.

We could get into why a lot of them are choosing not to do that.

But I will say this is not atypical for the Republican Party under Trump.

I think in 2017, it was sort of the similar thing.

Congress went into recess, and it was noticeable how few town halls were being held to the point that, you know, Democratic activists in like the group Indivisible in particular, which is an activist group that is not directly linked to the Democratic Party, but was just sort of like, you know, a good government type pushback.

People were holding town halls for their congressmen, even without them there.

So this isn't totally atypical.

But yeah, right now, members of Congress are not holding a lot of town halls.

And the ones that are happening are actually pretty contentious.

I mean, I think we all saw a lot of footage of Mike Flood, the Nebraska Republican.

His town hall was a little spicy.

Yeah, and spicy meaning like cackling and protests and like the person who's holding the town hall maybe not even being able to answer the questions.

Not a good spice, not like a little

like too many habaneros.

Yeah.

And I actually asked Congressman Alfred about this, like why have so many, especially like in this time and like given everything that his colleagues have gone through.

And he actually said, like, yeah, I was a little apprehensive.

He's a former broadcast journalist.

He likes being in front of people.

But he said, yeah, it gave him pause.

I had seen the video of Mike Flood, and I had had a bad experience in March where 12 people were supposed to show up for Mondays with Mark Coffee, and there was 200 people that showed up and basically

shouted over me as I was trying to get the answers out.

I don't want to talk over people.

Are we going to help heal America by shouting at each other?

His concerns aside, it didn't turn into that.

It did not turn into screaming matches.

He went to places like a university, diners.

What stood out to me was,

yes, there were like heated moments.

Like there's always going to be someone who has something really spicy to say, and it usually does get a lot of the attention.

But overall, it was a really civil experience.

And it surprised me because this is a really tense time, and we're sort of used to everything sort of like you're anticipating all of the stress that's coming your way.

He said, This is your time.

I'm not going to scream over you.

And it created an environment where people felt like they could say their piece.

He responded to them by name and was like, Thank you so much, Tim, for you know, coming here, even though we disagree.

So, what specific concerns did people bring up?

Yeah, you know, there are a couple that stand out to me.

A man named Jeff Droz, he owns a solar energy company in the area, and he described a situation where he had applied for grant funding from the USDA, which had gotten some funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

And basically, he got approval for this project.

He spent $100,000 on solar equipment, and then there was a halt.

People can argue the merits of the funding, but it's the fact that when they say it's available and then they take it away after the projects have been done

and leave

everyone holding the bag,

it's painful.

I mean, it's life-changing in a very, very damaging way to people.

Like, I'm going to have a heart attack or a stroke.

This is the reason town halls exist.

So many times, lawmakers will pass a bill and pretty much exclusively here from lobbyists and sort of special interest groups.

And everyday Americans don't have the time to go to Washington and tell you, this is how this bill is going to affect me.

Town halls are how politicians and lawmakers hear how something is received on the ground.

It's not an election year, so the folks who are going are people who have been directly affected by a piece of legislation.

So I think it is interesting that Republicans are deciding not to partake in these because I don't think they're getting a real sense of how this is affecting their constituencies and this is a way in which Alfred is.

Another person who spoke up at a town hall was Jeff Carneal.

He's a veteran.

He's an independent voter and he talked about how there was a hiring freeze at the VA hospital and it affected his care in the brain injury and spinal care unit.

and how he wanted to make sure that more funding wouldn't get cut under HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy.

So I asked him about how this has influenced his political views with the midterms more than a year away.

I don't think Mr.

Alford is,

I think he's just toe in the line.

Whatever Donald Trump says, yes, sir, Master, I'm going to go do it.

And I wish he wouldn't be that way.

I voted for him.

You know, I've met the man.

He seems very nice.

I've got to talk to him once or twice.

If things change, yes, I will vote for him.

If he stands up to Donald Trump.

This theme of like standing up to Trump is something that came up repeatedly at all of these stops.

And Alfred had praised Trump at times, like for his leadership.

He pushed back at the idea that he has a lot of personal influence over the president.

He had to tell people like, hey, like, ma'am, I don't have his cell phone number.

We don't have a close personal relationship.

But I think it's interesting that that's like sort of the appetite from folks.

Well, one thing you kind of touched on, Barbara, that I want to ask you, Ashley, about is this idea that selling this big domestic bill that Trump pushed through Congress is kind of hard sell for Republicans in a lot of ways.

What are some of those challenges when they're talking about this tax and spending bill that lawmakers are trying to maybe navigate?

Well, I mean, the biggest one is that it's unpopular.

The polling is not good on the quote-unquote big beautiful bill to the point that President Trump said in a cabinet meeting earlier this week that he wants to rebrand it because it's got stink on it.

It's just like not polling well with people.

And yeah, part of it is it doesn't describe like what the bill does.

And if Republicans, if the pitch they're making to voters is that this is a tax cut in some way, then how would you know that from the title Big Beautiful bill?

So it is kind of like a bind.

And then also, this is a bill that prevented something from possibly happening, but

with taxes, right.

And so that's also hard to sell to voters.

I mean, and also the overlaying message on this was from the Democrats has been like, actually, middle class people aren't getting the most benefit out of this.

It is wealthier Americans, which is a very unpopular thing.

And then, you know, there's baked into this tax cut bill is a lot of spending cuts on things that are popular, like SNAP, like food assistance and Medicaid.

Those don't kick in until, you know, after the midterms, but still, the messaging on this is kind of tough for Republicans.

All right, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back in a moment.

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And we're back.

So, Barbara, you also spent some time with Democratic Congresswoman Amelia Sykes in Ohio.

I'm curious, did she talk about this tax and spending bill?

And how did she talk about it?

Yeah, she did.

It wasn't, I would say, like the whole focus of her talk.

And I think part of that is the nature of her district.

It's a toss-up district.

It's one of the like top targeted races for Republicans to try to flip next cycle.

And, you know, that demographic of her district is something that she really openly acknowledged right off the bat.

She basically came out and said, so half of you voted for Trump and half of you voted for Kamala Harris.

She has a particular kind of like balance beam to walk when it comes to her district.

She said she would talk about what she would do for her constituents and that her theme is not going to be just being against Trump.

And I think that that's important because in some blue districts, a campaign that is fully about just pushing back against the administration can work.

But I just don't think that's the case in a district like hers.

She has to navigate this reality that a good number of her constituents probably are happy with this one big beautiful bill.

So most of her town hall was about ways to help constituents navigate things like the earned income tax credit, increasing opportunity, transportation.

Railways got like a lot of chatter.

So it was an interesting place to go to, especially compared to Alford's district, but just very different.

beasts there.

Ashley, are other Democrats talking about this tax and spending bill?

How is it translating on the other side of the aisle?

Yeah, I mean, the problem for Democrats is that they are, you know, speaking out against the Big Beautiful Bill.

There are members of Congress who are talking to their constituencies.

The problem is that Democrats are really fractured right now.

There's not, you know, a cohesive message.

It's not really breaking through.

This is very different from 2017, where there was a very mobilized activist class, as well as Democrats working together to oppose what Trump was up to at the time.

I mean, things are just very different right now.

And I mean, that is,

it's a tough position for Democrats because they have so so little power.

It is a sort of tough spot to be in.

Aaron Powell, you know, we talked about how these town halls have traditionally been a way for voters to interact with their government, right?

This is how they get to have a piece of Washington in their hometowns.

That's the way the system is supposed to work.

But with all of these states that are trying to talk about or moving forward with plans to redraw congressional districts before the midterm elections, are those efforts changing the ways that these members of Congress would interact with their own constituents?

I mean, I don't think that it's necessarily changing the way that they're going to interact or that they've been interacting, but I do think it's like it's an interesting dynamic to have kind of like holding over your head, not just as a member, but also the people going to these town halls who are like, it's very possible that their district will look completely different in a year.

And to back up, this is a conversation, you know, because it all kind of like started when President Trump asked Texas Republicans to redraw their maps to give five more seats before the midterms next year.

At least seven states, in in response to that have said that they're open to adjusting their maps as well.

If Missouri's governor and legislature do decide to do this mid-decade redistricting, which I should say they don't have to do, like that would be a choice to do.

Ohio, on the other hand, they have to do it.

But if Missouri does go ahead and do that, there's an interesting kind of thing that would happen in Alfred's district.

It would probably become a little less strongly Republican.

Like right now, it's a very safe Republican country.

If they're trying to dilute a nearby blue seat and make that more competitive for Republicans, like the flip side of that is that it's going to make Alfred's seat a little more competitive as well.

And that's the part of this that I think is really interesting, which is like a lot of members of Congress don't really need to be doing a lot of things like town halls and events, you know, to court voters because they're in safe seats.

You know, arguably this is an easy re-election for them.

But as states continue to look at, you know, creating more safe seats for their party, it makes other seats around them less safe.

So, I don't know.

There could be some members of Congress who could be forced to be doing a little bit more work in things like town halls in order to keep their seats.

Yeah, a lot more work on the ground.

That is really interesting.

All right, we're going to leave it there for today.

I'm Deepa Shivaram, I cover the White House.

I'm Barbara Sprent, I cover Congress, and I'm Ashley Lopez, I cover politics.

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.

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