Republicans are thinking hard about how to connect with constituents over August recess while avoiding confrontations with protesters and angry voters, which their opponents can use as fundraising fodder.
And they’re getting creative: From switching to telephone town halls to requiring driver’s licenses to attend in-person ones, some GOP lawmakers are taking steps while off the Hill to keep up a business-as-usual appearance of politicking. Others have stopped trying to meet constituents face to face altogether.
“Some have just, quite candidly, stopped doing ‘em because these town halls are no longer informative,” Chad Wilbanks, a Texas-based Republican strategist, told NOTUS. “Seeing constant disruption from people that aren’t willing to listen and have an engaging discussion, it just wasn’t worth it.”
Republican lawmakers could face a range of questions about what their party is doing as it holds control of Washington — from provisions in the reconciliation package, to releasing the Epstein files, to any number of the Trump administration’s moves or cuts.
There’s no shortage of examples to illustrate how tense these events can become, regardless of the venue. On Wednesday night, Rep. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma hosted a joint telephone town hall with two other Republican lawmakers. A caller asked her why she wouldn’t look voters “in the face, eye to eye,” before calling her town hall “a joke” and admitting they submitted a different question so they’d be selected to speak to the congresswoman.
A spokesperson for Bice said their office isn’t planning any in-person town halls over recess, but reiterated that the congresswoman has regularly hosted telephone versions for years, echoing how Bice responded in the moment.
Sparse calendars show few House lawmakers have announced in-person town halls so far, and of those, it’s clear many are taking steps to minimize the chance of disruptions.
Earlier in the week, Rep. Keith Self fielded questions in front of about 60 verified constituents, a much smaller crowd than the 300-person one that repeatedly heckled him in March over Department of Government Efficiency cuts. The meeting comes after the congressman paused all public events earlier this year, citing threats.
“While we have occasionally hosted larger events, Koffee with Keith events have historically been meetings with smaller groups of constituents at local businesses throughout my district,” Self told NOTUS in a statement, adding that he has more planned.
Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri, who faced a crowded coffee shop of angry constituents back in February, is hosting and publicly promoting a slate of in-person town halls across his district, mostly at local restaurants and cafés. A spokesperson for Alford said the tour is an annual commitment for the congressman, but the ground rules for this year’s events are still in “active conversation,” citing concerns about security as well as the potential for planned protests.
“As of this moment, we don’t have any plans to kick anyone out if they’re disruptive, unless they present a security threat, or to verify their residence in the fourth district,” the spokesperson said. “Doing either of those things honestly presents a whole new set of logistical challenges, as you can imagine, of how to enforce that and who would be the enforcers of it.”
And Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia told NOTUS last week that he would host more in-person town halls, too — and that they’ll be his first since a clip from one of his went viral in February after he was confronted about the Trump administration’s cuts to public health agencies.
“We basically got ambushed. They had four news stations there; it was a setup from the very get-go,” McCormick said. “It was very well organized, but we’ll be much more diligent.”
McCormick added he was still in the planning stages, but that his office would use driver’s licenses to verify participants were constituents, on top of having “strict rules so that it doesn’t become disruptive.”
Given rising safety threats aimed at public officials, these types of face-to-face, forum-style meetings with constituents present more security concerns for lawmakers to plan for, too. That sits near the top of the many hazards that politicians, and all the people they pay to advise and assist them, have to weigh.
Longtime Iowa GOP strategist David Kochel said he used to be a proponent of candidates hosting public meetings frequently, even encouraging campaigns to take the “Full Grassley,” a strategy named after the longtime senator’s visits to each of the state’s 99 counties.
But town halls have now, he said, “turned into a circus.” He pointed to when Sen. Joni Ernst responded to concerns about Medicaid cuts with, “We’re all going to die,” at an event. Democrats subsequently used her comment for fundraising content, and all as her comments flooded Iowa’s newspapers and stations.
“It’s kind of a minefield out there. And you don’t really want to send somebody out and have them try to navigate that,” Kochel said, adding that there are limited exceptions to the rule. He said there are still some “unflappable” lawmakers who don’t “take the bait when it’s thrown out there,” pointing to Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, whom he advises, as an example.
Hinson faced booing crowds in May but carried on fielding questions. A spokesperson for her office said the congresswoman “will continue to hold town halls and public events in Iowa,” though her office didn’t offer details.
A spokesperson for Ernst didn’t specify whether their office was planning town halls over recess, but called the heckles at her May town hall “a political stunt.”
To make these meetings more predictable and easier to prepare for, some lawmakers are shying away from in-person town halls, increasingly relying on options where people dial in and submit questions beforehand. But that doesn’t eclipse the possibility of confrontation, either.
Liz Mair, a conservative communications strategist, said Bice’s tele-town hall, where a caller confronted her about prescreening questions, is an example of that.
“That is exactly what happens. I have seen this consistently in campaigns, when people do try to do the screening,” Mair said. “Setting it up that way, it sure looks like the reason they did it was so that when the difficult Medicaid question comes, they can just have their member read off of a card.”
Mair said in-person town halls for House members, too, are “high risk, high reward,” and that the decision on whether to host them “all depends on how competent the politician is.”
That might require Hollywood-level rehearsal and acting, she said, for some lawmakers to come off authentically while repeating and retreating to talking points, and how to effectively respond to tough questions when, and not if, they happen.
“You do have a lot of people who think that because they got themselves elected in one of 435 congressional districts, they’re smarter and more clever and better communicators and more popular and whatever than anybody else in their district,” Mair said. “They’re going to find out that a lot of people hate them.”
But whether that outrage is manufactured or planted, it’s still there — and also very filmable, party consultants said. And if they dare to go ahead with in-person town halls, each strategist advised that they should prepare as if confrontation were inevitable.
“Unless you’re kind of girded for battle, town hall meetings tend to be counterproductive,” John Feehery, a national Republican strategist, told NOTUS. “Sometimes, it works out fine. A lot of times, they can chop it up and embarrass the candidate.”
“If you do that, then you completely lose control of the message,” he added. “And no politician wants to lose control of the message.”