Tim Walz Offers to Meet With Voters Whose GOP Reps Refuse to Hold Town Halls
"Canceling town halls to avoid voter backlash is the thing you do, right before you lose the majority," said one Democratic strategist.
Voters in Republican districts may see considerably less of their members of Congress in the coming months following a directive from the chair of the U.S. House GOP's campaign arm on Tuesday, but Democratic leaders including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz offered to fill in for lawmakers who don't want to face constituents who have questions about the Trump-Republican agenda.
"If your Republican representative won't meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will," said Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election. "Hell, maybe I will."
Walz's offer followed reports that Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said in a private meeting that members of the right-wing caucus should no longer meet in person with constituents at town halls to avoid the outcry that has garnered media attention at many recent meetings.
As the party has pushed for $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance in the budget proposal that the House passed last month—to help fund a tax cut for the richest Americans—and as President Donald Trump's billionaire ally, Elon Musk, has spearheaded massive cuts to federal agencies, Republicans at town halls have faced angry voters from across the political spectrum.
In Kansas on Saturday, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) stood up and left his own town hall after a voter asked how the GOP can support mass firings that have impacted thousands of veterans.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) was booed last month at a town hall as voters denounced the Republican Party's support for cuts to federal health agencies, and lawmakers in Alaska, Wisconsin, and Oregon faced similar reactions.
Right-wing commentators quickly dismissed the outcry about cuts to crucial public services as the result of Democrats mobilizing their voters—in apparent disbelief that constituents, without being prompted, would express anger about cuts to a healthcare program that serves nearly 80 million people.
On Monday, Trump dismissed people who have spoken out at town halls as paid "troublemakers," and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that those who have demanded answers from lawmakers about Musk's activities and the budget proposal are "Democrat activists who don't live in the district."
"They're professional protesters," he told reporters. "So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?"
Republicans have not presented any evidence that people speaking out about Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the party's economic agenda are being paid to do so.
U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) went as far as to compare people who object to public spending cuts to Neo-Nazis and threatening to arrest people who are "disruptive" at town halls and charge them with a misdemeanor.
"I'm not going to put up with these agitators," said Van Orden. "We're not doing it. Republicans are too nice."
Dan Pfeiffer, co-host of the podcast "Pod Save America" and a former Obama administration official, said that "canceling town halls to avoid voter backlash is the thing you do, right before you lose the majority."
At the GOP meeting, Hudson reportedly told lawmakers that "the paid resistance people are out there like in 2017," leading Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) to ask whether the Republican Party also blames the "paid resistance" for their loss of more than 40 House seats in the 2018 elections, which followed the party's attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its passage of the 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy.
Walz suggested Republicans' refusal to engage with their constituents could present an opportunity for Democrats to win more support in GOP districts.
"If your congressman refuses to meet, I'll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat 'em," said the governor.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote in a column at The American Prospect Tuesday that he already has plans to meet with voters in Republican voters, just as GOP lawmakers retreat.
"Starting March 24th, I will be going to three red districts in California to speak out against DOGE's mass firings and the Republicans' Medicaid cuts. This is a moment for progressives to speak directly to people across the country, especially in places that have been hollowed out by the offshoring of jobs and failed policies that have put billionaires over the working class," wrote Khanna, noting that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) spoke in Nebraska and Iowa districts last month where GOP members face competitive elections in 2026.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) added that she hosts "a town hall every single month because it gives me an opportunity to hear from my constituents and not hide from them."
"But I am not surprised Republicans are cowards," she said, "and will now be hiding from their constituents."
