The explosive events could reflect broad pushback to Republican governance. Or they might be just another outgrowth of political polarization.
Republicans went home for the summer with a plan to sell President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to their constituents. Some are starting to find that voters aren’t buying it.
In the latest display of backlash, audience members jeered Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood at a Monday town hall, shouting “Liar!” and “You don’t care about us!” over the two-term lawmaker as he made the case for the megabill, which Trump signed into law last month. By the end, chants of “Vote him out!” threatened to drown out his closing comments.
Such scenes of angry constituents confronting lawmakers are nothing new. They were commonplace in 2009 as Democrats pressed forward with a health care overhaul and in 2017 when Republicans sought to undo it.
This time around, there is a fierce debate underway about whether the town hall explosions are part of a genuine backlash to GOP governance in Washington — one that could presage another wave election as seen in 2010 and 2018 — or just another reflection of America’s political polarization.
Many Republicans are dismissing the outbursts, concluding they have been choreographed by Democrats and groups aligned with them and do not reflect genuine voter sentiment. Some — including Trump — have claimed without evidence that paid protesters are responsible.
“I think Democrats have been organized to actually act out in town halls, and I think if you’re going to have a town hall where you’re inviting people to come in with the intent of protesting, that’s what you’re going to get,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said Tuesday.
But left-of-center activists say the GOP dismisses voters’ outrage at their peril. Groups might be helping to publicize and organize protests around lawmakers’ events, they say, but that is merely harnessing a real grass-roots backlash to what Republicans are pursuing in Washington.
“I would say the level of energy and grassroots anger at Congress is at a higher level of intensity now than it was in 2017, and I think that’s evidenced by just the numbers that you’re seeing on the ground,” said Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of Indivisible,a progressive organization that came to prominence organizing protests that year.
Evaluating the competing claims has grown more complicated because Republican lawmakers, on the whole, have been doing fewer events in the classic town hall format — in-person, with an open attendance policy.
With the GOP megabill still in its initial stages earlier this year, the chair of the House GOP’s national campaign committee explicitly urged members not to hold in-person town halls during congressional breaks. But recently, with the legislation now signed into law, the party committee urged members to get out and sell the bill’s benefits.
Even then, some Republicans say they plan to shy away from the type of town hall that Flood held on Monday — open mic, on a college campus in a relatively liberal corner of his district.
Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida, who represents a solid Republican district, said he has a busy recess schedule speaking to small GOP and civic groups. But he said he is passing on scheduling the larger public forums.
“Only people who have never supported me want me to do a town hall,” he said.
Bean insisted he wasn’t insulating himself from criticism — he said he’s fielded plenty of skeptical questions on tariffs from constituents who work in affected industries. But he said the only negative feedback he has heard on the megabill is