Congress' disappearing town halls
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Illustration: Eniola Odetunde / Axios
The congressional town hall is becoming an endangered species.
Why it matters: August recess once meant lawmakers returning home to face constituents — sometimes friendly, sometimes furious. After a wave of explosive confrontations last year, many lawmakers have stopped them altogether.
- Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) is among the dwindling number of lawmakers who still regularly subject themselves to the traditional, open town hall.
- "You've got to show up in the town square and answer the questions. I told people I'd do it when I ran, and I kept my promise," Flood told Axios.
- Flood holds three in-person town halls a year. He said his forums last year each drew about 750 people, while attendance this year has ranged from 235 to 315.
Zoom in: Only 11 lawmakers have town halls scheduled for the rest of August, according to LegiStorm's town hall tracker.
- For a ritual once synonymous with August recess, that's a remarkably thin showing.
Flashback: Republicans got screamed at — a lot — at town halls last year, as constituents vented over DOGE, federal layoffs and the Trump administration's spending cuts.
- Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) was booed, heckled and repeatedly interrupted at a March 2025 town hall in Asheville as he defended Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE cuts.
- During an August 2025 town hall, constituents shouted at Flood, "Liar!" and "You don't care about us!"
- The angry confrontations prompted NRCC chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) to tell Republicans to stop holding in-person town halls.
In summer 2009, Democrats faced angry voters at their town hall meetings across the country as constituents protested the Affordable Care Act. (As of January 2026, public approval of the ACA was 61%, according to KFF.)
- Democrats suffered historic losses in the 2010 midterm election.
Zoom out: Flood says the most heated moments don't always capture what happens inside the room.
- "What you see on TV isn't necessarily what's really happening," he said.
- Even the "really animated" constituents who disagree with him on most issues, Flood said, may applaud him on others — from supporting Ukraine to addressing housing affordability.
The intrigue: The old-school format has particular appeal for independent voters, who value the chance to hear from their representatives at a nonpartisan event, Flood argued.
- "They walk in, and you know, oftentimes they've got like a notebook and a piece of paper and a pen, and they're like, 'Yeah, I'm here to listen and see what I think,'" Flood told Axios.
- "I think they get a lot of value out of it."
The bottom line: Asked if he thinks his colleagues should follow his lead on town halls, Flood told Axios: "I know what's right for me, and this is right for me.… How do things get better if we don't talk to each other?"
