Only One Republican Is Holding This Many Town Halls
Even as most congressional Republicans are avoiding their constituents, one has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to engaging with voters in the flesh: 61-year-old Mark Alford of Missouri held not one but 15 public events across his district this week, including five town halls. The second-term lawmaker is not an otherwise noteworthy member of Congress. He represents a safe Republican district, and has voted along party lines 89 percent of the time, according to Heritage Action. But in a moment when so few Republicans are making an effort to hear from the people who sent them to Congress, Alford has set himself apart. His forums, four of which I attended this week, offer a useful window into voters’ opinions of the current administration, and a preview of the biggest fights to come in 2026.
Alford, whose district spans 24 counties in west-central Missouri, is a former TV-news anchor with a square jaw and gray hair that make him resemble a slightly younger version of Pat Sajak. At each of his recent public events, which were announced weeks ago and were open to the press, Alford forwent the customary politician’s podium. Instead he perched on a stool to avoid the appearance, he told me, of “lording” over voters. In an interview, Alford said that he sees these public events as vital to the job. “That’s why we’re elected every two years—to be back in the district to listen to people,” he said. “I may not win them over, but I’ll be able to sleep at night knowing that I at least listened to them.”
Since March, when Republican leaders in Congress advised their members against holding town halls, most GOP lawmakers have been AWOL during each congressional recess—physically in their districts, maybe, but mostly inaccessible. A handful of lawmakers have flouted this new advice by holding one or two stand-alone town halls, while others have only dared to host virtual events with prescreened questions.
Alford declined to speculate about why so many of his Republican colleagues haven’t met with their constituents during the August recess. But the answer is probably that they don’t see much upside in being publicly heckled—which Alford was, often. Most of the attendees who showed up to the coffee shops and community centers where Alford spoke this week were not fans of his; several used the crowd mic to call the president a “dictator” and Alford his lackey. At Southwest Baptist University, in Bolivar, Missouri, a farmer named Fred Higginbotham asked the congressman repeatedly when he would take his “head out of Trump’s ass.” (At this, two older women near me gasped.) Alford mostly ignored these insults, although at one point, he distanced himself from the president: “I’m not the best of friends with Trump,” he told Higginbotham. “I met him maybe five or six times.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/republican-isn-t-afraid-hear-110000132.html