An hour into Rep. Nikki Budzinski’s most recent town hall, a constituent demanded that the Illinois Democrat explain why she “hurt” her district by supporting legislation that advanced Republicans’ agenda, like the Laken Riley Act. The attendee added, “You don’t get anything for any votes you give to the Republicans.”
Budzinski defended her vote for the immigration legislation, which was an early test for Democrats on how they would adjust based on last year’s election results.
“Where I can, I am truly showing up, and I understand how that vote was disappointing,” Budzinski, whose district leans Democrat, said on Wednesday.
Budzinski’s town hall exemplifies the increasing pressure Democrats are facing to craft a winning message and stay unified under a quick-moving second Trump administration. Being a member of the minority party is traditionally thought of as a straightforward task that revolves around opposing whoever is in power. But Democrats are facing unusual pressures as they also try to figure out the future of their party.
At a town hall in his safely blue district Thursday, Rep. Jim Clyburn, a centrist lawmaker who long served in House leadership, pointed to the large crowds drawn by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a sign of how concerned voters are about President Donald Trump’s administration. The progressives, who have drawn audiences as large as 36,000 people, have been looked to as a test of how Democrats can tap into voter enthusiasm in red parts of the country.
“We’ve got to go around this country and talk to people and say to everybody, ‘We have got to speak out,’” Clyburn said. “No matter what we do in Congress, you’ve got to have 218 votes to get anything through the House, and you’ve got to get 60 votes to get anything on the docket in the Senate. So all we can do is share with you what we’re doing and ask for your prayers.”
In more than half a dozen town halls watched by NOTUS this week, congressional Democrats have received earfuls from a base that is agitated by their approach to Trump 2.0 and by Trump’s policies. Some of the constituents have expressed frustration with the limitations of their party in Washington and the perception that they’re not doing enough, with others questioning party leadership.
At Rep. Bill Foster’s town hall in Illinois on Wednesday, a constituent asked why Democrats aren’t “doing more” — including impeaching Trump — to hold the president accountable. Foster explained that Democrats don’t have the numbers needed to do so without Republican help, adding that “virtually every Democrat in Congress is on your side.”
“Don’t mistake that for an unwillingness to conclude that this is probably, unquestionably, the worst president that we’ve had in our country’s history,” Foster, who also represents a Democratic district, said.
Antjuan Seawright, a veteran Democratic strategist who has long been an adviser to Clyburn, said that while the Democratic base has put its representatives in the hot seat at town halls, these moments of in-party disagreement shouldn’t overshadow the fact that the base still opposes Trump.
“The worst thing we can do as Democrats, as people who obviously do not agree with what’s happening in our country from a governing standpoint, is try to nitpick people who are on the right side of history on the issues more than not,” Seawright told NOTUS.
Still, even as Democrats are largely aligned in their opposition to Republicans, the town halls make clear that lawmakers are making different calculations according to their voters and constituents’ priorities.
In a town hall Tuesday, freshman Rep. Shomari Figures told his Alabama constituents that they are dealing with the “consequences” of Trump’s election, and that he’s trying to take a balanced approach to get results for his district.
“We still have to balance out what we do with this position to still be effective,” Figures said. “You will see me scream and shout about a lot of things that impact us locally. You will not see me scream and shout about every single thing … screaming and shouting about every single thing gets us no closer to the money that we need to still flow to this district through the channels that are still there.”
Others are clearly itching for the opportunity to fight every fight.
“We’ve got to slow down the Republican agenda, either in the courts, in Congress or on the streets,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez, whose district is a Democratic stronghold, said at his town hall on Tuesday. “We’ve got to do it all.”
And Rep. Gabe Vasquez encouraged attendees at an event he hosted to look ahead to the 2026 midterms. If Democrats win, they will regain a check on the Trump administration, which he said has “run rough shop” over Congress, especially on issues like tariffs.
“It is tough for me to not be able to do more to help stop the agenda of Project 2025,” Vasquez said at a town hall he hosted in his competitive New Mexico district on Tuesday. “In 2026, when we have an opportunity to win back the House, when we have subpoena power, when we’ve created special investigative committees to better understand the motivation behind the tariffs, we can investigate the administration.”
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Tinashe Chingarande is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Torrence Banks contributed reporting.