House Democrats are heading to Republican districts to conduct town halls — a strategy designed to highlight the moratorium on those public events recently suggested by the head of the GOP’s campaign arm.
“We’re filling a void,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), who is planning “a few” town halls in Republican districts, told reporters during the Democrats’ annual retreat in Leesburg, Va.
Earlier in the month, Rep. Richard Hudson (N.C.), the head of the Republicans’ campaign arm, advised House Republicans to avoid in-person town halls in their districts. The advice came after several GOP lawmakers had staged public forums and found that many constituents were infuriated with the policies of President Trump.
Videos of those confrontations — which Republicans blamed on Democratic agitators — made their way online and quickly went viral.
Democrats are hoping to exploit that unrest. They’ve been staging town halls all year in their own districts, and next week they’re planning a blitz of the events to highlight the GOP’s proposals to cut Medicaid spending.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), for instance, is planning town halls next week in three GOP-controlled districts, which are currently held by California Republican Reps. David Valadao, Young Kim and Ken Calvert.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
Shouldnt it be potential candidates for that district? Funded by the dnc sure but why do I care if some random rep shows up
This is smart, people need to be informed on how hard they’re about to get fucked thanks to their GOP reps
I’m actually not sure this is a good idea. Do town halls actually change anyone’s minds?
I doubt there would be enough people there to sway to actually carry an election. The only kind of people who would show up to something like this are people who are politically active and have already formed their opinions. I doubt you’d see a lot of “median voters” there.
And since the crowd is going to be packed with people who disagree with you, it’s just going to result in a bunch of clips for social media showing “brave mother stands up to evil Democrat at Town Hall,” and just run with the one clip where someone inevitably screws up and says something they shouldn’t. This is not to mention the boos they can expect when giving their response if they dare to attack the dear leader.
Best case scenario seems to be you have someone like Buttigeig who’s actually pretty good at addressing the opposition head on using talking points that appeal even to their voters, but none of those responses are going to penetrate the MAGA media bubble.
Democrats need to find new ground some where. Flood the zone, and do the work. Maybe a 50 state strategy this midterm?