Town halls give frustrated Democrats chance to vent about Trump and Musk

NEWINGTON, Conn. – More than 100 people attended Democratic Rep. John B. Larson’s recent town hall in this Connecticut suburb to voice outrage over President Donald Trump’s push to radically shrink the federal government.

But Thursday night’s meeting also provided voters an opportunity to vent about what they view as an inadequate response from Democrats to Trump’s blitz of policy changes – and the sweeping and chaotic budget cuts unleashed at his direction by Elon Musk. Similar confusion and frustrations played out at town halls across the nation last week and could have major implications for the 2026 midterm elections.

“I know that you have been in Congress for many years, and there used to be decorum (and) a level of professionalism that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene don’t have,” Anne Tomlin, a mother of two from nearby West Hartford, told Larson, referring to the Georgia congresswoman and top Trump ally. “But I need you to be our version of Marjorie Taylor Greene. I need you to … show up with this level of righteous fury. “

Larson, a former high school history teacher now in his 14th term representing his Hartford-anchored seat, responded with talk of the Constitution and the rule of law.

“The work that we’re doing is tedious and slow and doesn’t make headlines,’’ he said. “But it will work. Democracies do work.”

The dynamics of the town hall in Connecticut’s deep-blue 1st District exposed a disconnect between Democratic lawmakers, who control neither the House nor the Senate, and the party’s base, which is pressing for an aggressive response to Trump and his allies in Congress.

Nancy Polito, a retired state worker from Newington, acknowledged that Democrats can only do so much to rein in the president.

“I understand what you’re saying, follow the laws, but we’ve got a house on fire, and I’m not sure that that works,” she said, drawing applause from the audience.

Lacking leverage

At a news conference in Washington in early February, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reflected on his party’s present dilemma.

“I’m trying to figure out what leverage we actually have,’’ the New York Democrat said. “(Republicans) control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”

With the House in recess last week, House Democratic leaders urged caucus members to hold in-person events in their districts to explain directly to voters how the party is pushing back against the tumultuous first weeks of Trump’s second term. Dozens of House lawmakers also held tele-town halls that drew hundreds – and in some cases, thousands – of participants.

The raucous forums exposed a level of discord and fury among Democrats not seen since the heyday of the anti-Trump resistance in 2017, which helped propel the so-called blue wave the following year that saw the party flip the House.

In a battleground district in the Virginia suburbs, Democratic freshman Rep. Eugene Vindman heard from constituents, many of them federal workers, about the impact of the firings and layoffs initiated by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

In progressive Northampton, Mass., about 500 voters came to a church on a frigid Saturday morning to implore Rep. Jim McGovern and his fellow Democrats to be more aggressive in their anti-Trump pushback and in Oregon, a crowd of more than 700 pressed Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Sen. Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, about how they plan to stand up to Republicans.

In Albany, N.Y., Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko faced a restive audience girding for battle. “We have to take the gloves off,’’ one speaker said, as the crowd cheered. “We can’t wait for protocol. They’re not playing by the rules.”

Pushback in red districts

But it wasn’t just lawmakers from blue and purple districts who got an earful from Trump critics at town halls last week. Some of the most intense backlash was aimed at GOP members who have embraced the president’s agenda, though these Republicans say the opposition largely came from Democratic activists.

At a town hall forum last week in a solid-red district outside Atlanta, Republican Rep. Rich McCormick was repeatedly interrupted with shouts and jeers. “If you’re going to just yell at me, that’s not going to be an effective town hall,” the congressman said at one point, after defending Musk’s cost-cutting measures.

Oregon Republican Cliff Bentz faced equally hostile crowds at each of the four town hall meetings he held across his sprawling largely rural district. The audience at the forum in La Grande, Ore., booed and yelled, “Tax Elon!” when Bentz started explaining why spending cuts were necessary, according to an account in The (La Grande) Observer.

In Wisconsin, GOP Rep. Scott Fitzgerald fielded testy questions from constituents unhappy at what they saw as compliant Republicans in Congress not standing up to Trump, TMJ4 News in Milwaukee reported. “We need three branches of government, not one,’’ a voter told Fitzgerald.

Another Wisconsin Republican, Rep. Glenn Grothman, was booed when he told a town hall audience that Trump has done “some very good things.”

Elsewhere, protesters have gone to the district offices of Republican lawmakers who did not hold public forums, demanding they meet with voters.

Hearing from the public

Democrats, who have struggled to find their footing following their 2024 losses, are hoping the anti-Trump energy will help them win the House and Senate next year. The hostility and anger that played out last week have already drawn comparisons to the contentious town halls of 2009, which helped galvanize the tea party movement and led to the GOP seizing control of the House the following year.

Democratic leaders have increasingly homed in on Musk, portraying the tech billionaire as Trump’s unelected “puppet master,” who is using his broad power to slash spending and hollow out the federal workforce.

Painting Musk as the bogeyman may prove popular: A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that 55% of voters thought Musk has too much power to make decisions that affect the nation.

“He’s not elected. He wasn’t approved by the Senate, and yet he operates in a special Cabinet position but he’s not a member of the Cabinet,’’ Larson told the crowd at the Connecticut town hall.

Despite the pushback, Trump doesn’t seem inclined to back away from Musk. “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive,” the president said over the weekend in an all-caps post on his Truth Social platform.

Some voters are seeking a bolder response from Democrats in the face of Trump’s seeming efforts to usurp the role of Congress and upend longstanding political mores.

“You have a roomful of people who feel powerless,’’ Cathy Gentile-Doyle, a social worker and retired professor, told Larson. “We are really, really upset. … This is all a horror show.”

Mars Rodriguez, who is 24 and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut, said congressional Democrats aren’t taking the threat Trump poses to democracy as seriously as they ought to.

“Democrats,” Rodriguez said, “should treat this as a war.”

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