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Massive turnout at Democratic lawmakers’ town halls as Republicans hide from voters

Emily Randall

Washington Rep. Emily Randall hosts a very well-attended town hall at Olympic College on March 8, 2025.

The GOP struggles to defend the unpopular Trump administration’s policies.

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As Republicanlawmakers dodge in-person town halls, avoiding direct engagement with voters furious over the Trump administration’s devastating policies, LGBTQ+ Democrats like Washington Rep. Emily Randall and Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan are doing the opposite. They're meeting people where they are and making themselves accessible.

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Randall, the first out queer Latina elected to Congress, hosted a morning town hall Saturday at Olympic College in Bremerton, Wash. that filled up in minutes. Rather than turning the overflow crowd away, she immediately held a second session. “I want to hear from everyone who took the time out of their day to be here,” she wrote on social media.

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That same day in Wisconsin, Pocan, who is gay and served as the previous chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, held a town hall in the small village of Belmont, strategically placing the event as close as possible to the district of his Republican colleague, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who has refused to hold town halls of his own. Despite the town’s population of just over 1,000, hundreds showed up — some forced to stand outside and peer through windows to hear him speak, Madison's WKOW reports. He listened as constituents voiced their fears about Trump’s proposed Medicaid cuts, including a mother who worried her disabled daughter would lose access to essential care. Pocan used the event to call out Van Orden directly. “If you don’t have town halls, if you don’t have ways to communicate with constituents, you’re not really doing your job,” he said.

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Related: Why queer Democrat Emily Randall says she walked out of Trump’s presidential address

Meanwhile, Republicans are actively avoiding these conversations. House Speaker Mike Johnson has advised GOP lawmakers to skip town halls altogether, dismissing them as “political theater.” Some, like Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga, have opted for telephone town halls to control questions and avoid the intensity of public scrutiny. “I know this may not be satisfactory to some who would like to just create a scene,” Huizenga said, downplaying concerns from his constituents, CBS News reports.

Large crowd stands in line to get into Emily Randall town hall A large crowd of constituents stands in line awaiting entry to Olympic College theater to hear Rep. Emily Randall take questions at a town hall.Emily Randall

But Democrats aren’t backing down. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has encouraged members to engage directly with voters and expose the real impact of Trump’s policies.

“House Republicans and Donald Trump have proposed the largest cut to Medicaid in American history,” Jeffries warned on Thursday. “Republicans are trying to rip healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans. Children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. And older Americans will be devastated. Hospitals will close—including in rural America—all across the country and nursing homes will shut down. Those are the implications of the House Republican budget, and every single Democrat [is] going to continue to stand against it.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has openly mocked Republicans for hiding from their constituents. “Anyone who lets this stuff be an excuse to hide from the public and stop doing town halls is not cut out for the job,” she wrote on X. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ro Khanna, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have floated the idea of Democrats hosting town halls in Republican districts to offer voters a chance to be heard when their representatives refuse to show up, MSNBC reports.

Randall’s town halls came just days after she joined fellow Democrats in walking out of Trump’s joint address to Congress, where he attacked gender-affirming care and celebrated Medicaid cuts.

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