Republicans Are Afraid To Be Confronted By Their Own Constituents— I Don't Wonder Why

As he did in 2018, Trump will serve as the ultimate albatross around the necks of Republican congressional candidates, especially incumbents— and this cycle, he has Musk, Vought, RFK, Jr, Hegseth and a whole cabinet-full of disliked officials to share the role with him. The Trump Regime’s collapsing approval has Republican Members of Congress thinking about their political demises. Many of them— even in safe red districts— are avoiding potentially public events exposing them to questions from their constituents about unpopular Republican policies.

Long Island progressive Lukas Ventouras, the Democrat running for the Suffolk County swing district, told us that the incumbent, “Nick LaLota is too afraid of his constituents to host a real town hall. He pretends that glossy events with donors, and calling into a radio station are ‘town halls,’ but the truth is, these are not town halls, and LaLota is too cowardly to face his people. He doesn't  want to draw the ire of the President by answering for the cuts to social spending, the attack on our freedoms with the unconstitutional arresting of student  protestors, or Elon Musk. On the other hand, he supports these actions, and doesn't want to face his angry constituents. Suffolk County deserves better.” 

Yesterday, the Associated Press’ Steve Peoples and Thomas Beaumont told the story how Rick Perry is avoiding his constituents in south central Pennsylvania. “Many days over the past two weeks, no one answered the phone at any of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry’s four offices. Perry’s team did not share details about the Republican congressman’s public appearances until they were over. Even supporters who live in Perry’s central Pennsylvania district could not remember the last time he hosted an in-person town hall. No one opened the locked door at his district office in Mechanicsburg last week when an Associated Press reporter rang the bell. A male voice said through the intercom, “I don’t have any public appearance information that I can provide.”

They weren’t writing a story about Perry per se— let alone LaLota. They were covering the “17-day recess, typically known as a district work period, in which members of Congress return home to focus on their constituents. But some of the most vulnerable Republicans limited their potential exposure to the potential backlash from Trump’s first months in office. They are embracing the strategy outlined by GOP leaders in Washington who argue there is no benefit to creating more viral moments such as the crowd in Asheville, North Carolina, that booed U.S. Rep Chuck Edwards and the pointed questions about tariffs and deportations that were directed at U.S. Sen Chuck Grassley of Iowa.” 

They wrote that “None of [the most vulnerable GOP incumbents], a collection of swing-district conservatives from across Arizona, Colorado, California, Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, hosted in-person events that were open to the public. Just one planned a telephone town hall. Others favored smaller invitation-only gatherings with local officials promoted only after they were over. The Republicans’ lack of access didn’t sit well with some voters. ‘They’re publicly elected officials. They ought to be accessible to the public,’ Republican voter Robert Barton, a 57-year-old civil engineer, said as he waited for his lunch at Italian Delight Pizzeria across the street from Perry’s office in Mechanicsburg.”

Catching on to Bernie’s and AOC’s massive rallies in red districts, the DCCC and other blue-aligned organizations have helped organize “People’s Town Halls” and “Good Trouble” events in districts where Republicans will not hold public events. Although none have risen to the Bernie-AOC level, Mark Pocan, Ro Khanna, Chris Murphy and other Democrats have held extremely successful town halls in GOP districts.

Peoples and Beaumont wrote that “Democrats are betting their strategy will give them an advantage in the 2026 election, when control of Congress will be decided for the last two years of Trump’s final term. Historically, the party that holds the White House loses seats in these midterms. And as of now, Republicans would lose the House majority if they lose a net of just two seats… Mariannette Miller-Meeks is an Iowa Republican who won last fall by 799 votes, the closest U.S. House election in the country. She spoke at the Faith and Freedom fundraiser, but she spent the Easter recess meeting with far smaller groups in more controlled environments: a wheel accessory plant, several business groups in the Des Moines and Davenport areas, a Rotary Club meeting, and a groundbreaking for an eastern Iowa medical center. Most of her constituents would have learned of the stops by checking Miller-Meeks’ social media accounts after the fact. Miller-Meeks, like her fellow most-targeted Republican House members, offered little if any public notice of her appearances. Like the other House Republicans in the nation’s most-competitive districts, she held no events open to all constituents, nor had any planned for the remainder of the break, which ended Sunday.”

Her 2026 opponent, progressive Travis Terrell, told us that “Miller-Meeks claims she can’t hold real town halls because of ‘security concerns.’ But if you’ve turned your back on your constituents so completely that you now feel threatened by them, that’s not a security issue— that’s your conscience trying to catch up with the damage you’ve done. We have people across this district messaging her office every single day— begging for answers— and getting ignored. Meanwhile, she sneaks into Iowa for photo ops, posts a few staged pictures, and flees like a thief in the night before the public even knows she’s here. She recently promised she would hold a town hall, but— just like every other time— there’s no date, no time, no location. And when it does happen, you can bet it’ll be a carefully scripted event designed to avoid the people she’s supposed to answer to.”

Back in Perry’s Harrisburg-area district, Democrats are optimistic that they are well-positioned to defeat the seven-term Republican, a former chairman of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus.

He defeated Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former local television broadcaster [also DCCC loved conservative former Republican and carpetbagger], by 5,000 votes last fall. Stelson expects to start another campaign against Perry in July.

“The title of the job is representative. It’s not actually about you, it’s about what the people you talk to care about and want you to accomplish for them,” she said. “And I don’t understand how he can possibly know what that is when he’s never out among us.”

Some voters have taken notice.

Tim Shollenberger, a Mechanicsburg resident who was a registered Republican until recently, struggled to be heard during Perry’s April 2 tele-town hall.

Participants were not allowed to ask questions directly, so the 69-year-old trial lawyer submitted three questions in writing: one about Elon Musk’s critical comments about Social Security and two about Perry’s lack of public access.

The moderator did not ask any of them.

“If you really care about the views of your constituents, get in a room and face them,” Shollenberger said.

One of the Republicans too frightened of her own constituents to hold any town halls is Iowa Senator Joni Ernest, who is up for reelection next year. State Rep J.D. Scholten, who is being urged to run against her, told us that “Senator Joni Ernst is exactly what happens when a politician goes DC, she doesn’t comeback much and when she does she doesn’t make constituents a priority because she rarely holds events where the general public can ask her questions about the chaos and uncertainty that’s happening.”