Angst pervades a pair of Republican town halls — one in Trump country,
the other in a swing state
[March 17, 2025]
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, MAKIYA SEMINERA and THOMAS BEAUMONT
EVANSTON, Wyo. (AP) — In two congressional districts and vastly
different political environments, two Republicans in the U.S. House were
met with far different reactions at public meetings they held late last
week.
Against the suggestion of their leader, House Speaker Mike Johnson, to
refrain from holding public meetings with constituents, second-term
Reps. Chuck Edwards and Harriet Hageman went ahead with their evening
sessions.
In Asheville, North Carolina, chants of opposition greeted Edwards on
Thursday as opponents hooted at almost every answer he gave and chanted
outside. In Evanston, Wyoming, at the southwestern corner of a sparsely
populated and heavily Republican state, it was mostly Republicans who
asked probing questions of Hageman in a quieter setting.
In both cases, voters were curious about the scope and pace of action in
Washington since President Donald Trump took office, if less
boisterously in Wyoming than the event 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to
the southeast.
Evanston, Wyoming
Joy Walton, a 76-year-old Republican from Evanston, had come to the
meeting confused about tech billionaire Elon Musk's role in the
executive branch. Trump has charged Musk with leading a broad effort to
shrink the size and cost of government.
Hageman — Liz Cheney ’s successor — worked to clarify Musk’s place in
the Trump administration, describing him as “a special government
employee" with “a top-secret security clearance." She praised him for
his work targeting foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for
International Development, calling the department a “monstrosity and
waste of money.”
The meeting was tamer than some constituent meetings held by
Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and the Senate. Sen. Roger
Marshall, a Kansas Republican, adjourned such a meeting this month in
northwest Kansas early when constituents became vocally angry about
government personnel cuts.
Still, Hageman's meeting Friday, with about 250 filling to capacity the
meeting room in the restored Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse, was the
liveliest event that evening in the train depot town of about 11,800
people.
Some in the audience blurted comments to Hageman, though this was not
unfriendly territory for Trump. The president received 80% of the vote
in Uinta County, along the Utah border, en route to carrying Wyoming
with nearly 72% of voters last year.
Yet even some devout Republicans gave voice to concern about Musk's
recommendations as the head of the administration's Department of
Government Efficiency.
Former Wyoming Secretary of State Karl Allred, 60, said he was happy to
see Trump slash “wasteful spending,” but noted that any serious
reduction in federal spending needed to include the defense budget. “I
guarantee we waste a lot of money there, and in every department,”
Allred said regarding the military.
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Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., talks to attendees after holding a
town hall meeting on Friday, March 14, 2025, in Evanston, Wyo. (AP
Photo/Spenser Heaps)
Even Hageman suggested Musk was going too far in targeting the U.S.
Postal Service, which has agreed to assist Musk's group in its plan
to cut 10,000 of the service's 640,000 workers over the next month.
Wyoming would be among the states hit hardest by cuts to the
country’s mail service because of its small population, Hageman
said.
Asheville, North Carolina
Edwards was walking into a far different environment. Asheville, a
mid-sized urban hub surrounded by the rural hills of western North
Carolina, is the seat of Buncombe County, where Trump received 36.9%
of the vote last year.
Jay Carey, a 54-year-old Democrat, had said before the Thursday
night constituent meeting at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community
College, “My plan is to call him out.”
About 20 minutes into Edwards’ meeting, Carey, a retired military
veteran, started to yell at the representative to “Do your job.”
Carey then stood, accused Edwards of lying and used a string of
expletives until police escorted him out of the auditorium.
For about 90 minutes, Edwards faced jeers, boos and pointed
questions from many in the audience of 300, while another 1,000
echoed them from outside the building.
Certainly, Carey, from the Asheville area, was part of a group of
Democrats who attended the meeting, though not paid protesters as
Johnson suggested were behind some of the more raucous gatherings.
Carey’s home flooded with six feet of water during Hurricane Helene
in September. He lost his small business and his family had to
relocate from a house to a smaller apartment.
Much of Edwards’ district was ravaged by the hurricane and remains
in the early rebuilding phase, even as Trump has suggested
eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Edwards seemed unruffled by the often hostile reception, telling
reporters afterward, "I appreciate the chance to talk about those
things, even though there were some differences and some different
opinions."
Still, as protesters continued to chant outside, Edwards said,
“We're doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington,
D.C., to do."
___
Seminera reported from Asheville and Beaumont from Des Moines, Iowa.
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