Democratic senators up for re-election are ditching in-person town halls — avoiding voters’ nationwide displeasure with elected officials.
Only a few of the ten Democratic senators who are on the ballot in 2018 are hosting such town halls, which in other election cycles were routine, the Associated Press reported.
“Seems to me that all these members of Congress are afraid to face their constituents,” Hillary Shields, a member of Kansas City Indivisible, said after Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) declined the group’s invitation to attend a town hall.
President Trump won Missouri by more than 18 percentage point in the 2016 presidential election — making the swing state a key target for Republicans to try to unseat McCaskill in 2018.
“Here we are, and we’d like a town hall meeting,” West Virginia protester Cathy Kunkel told the wire service regarding her senator, Joe Manchin (D-WV).
“His constituents have a lot of questions. This is the first recess of the new Congress in the Trump administration,” she added.
Manchin, too, has avoided holding a town hall.
Town halls hosted by Republican politicians have erupted as voters have expressed displeasure with the implementation of President Trump’s controversial agenda, including his pledge to dismantle Obamacare, travel ban, and border wall with Mexico. Moderate Democrats appear unwilling to align themselves too closely to their base, for fear of alienating constituents that helped vote Trump into the Oval Office.
Congress is out of session this week in observance of Presidents’ Day, but will return to Washington next Kaçak ?ddaa week.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) hosted public events this week, but not town hall-style formats.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) said he’d host town halls next month, while Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has hosted “several telephone conference calls recently,” according to a spokeswoman.
With Post Wires
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