Summary
Democrats are holding town halls in Republican districts, highlighting GOP lawmakers’ absence by leaving empty chairs on stage.
Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan hosted a town hall with an empty chair for absent Republican Derrick Van Orden, drawing 300 attendees in a town of 4,500.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ former running mate, has also held events in GOP areas, calling Elon Musk a “dipshit” and a “South African nepo baby.”
Republicans, facing backlash over Trump’s federal program cuts, have avoided in-person events, citing disruptive protests. Democrats, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are hosting events nationwide, while the DNC plans billboards urging constituents to demand town halls.
If you had told me a year ago that one party had to stop holding town halls because they were afraid of their constituents, I would’ve assumed it would’ve been about heavily armed far-right militias intimidating Democrats. People can downplay it but it does seem kinda significant to me that Republicans have effectively been deplatformed by their own constituents, even if the specific example in the article (a town of 4,500 people) is pretty insignificant. Combined with the narrative shifting to, “things will get materially worse in the short term, but that’s good, actually,” it’s starting to shape up to a potentially big shift in the midterms.