AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Congressional lawmakers swapped the halls of the U.S. Capitol this week for their home states. For many, that meant holding town halls and a chance for them to hear directly from their constituents. Wyoming Public Media's Jordan Uplinger and NPR's Barbara Sprunt caught up with lawmakers in neighboring states - Wyoming and Colorado - to hear what folks had to say. Hello to you both.
JORDAN UPLINGER, BYLINE: Hi.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
RASCOE: So, Jordan, you went to a couple of town halls held by Congresswoman Harriet Hageman. She's one of the only congressional Republicans who held in-person town halls last week. Tell us about the first one you went to.
UPLINGER: Yeah. So I was in Laramie, a blue-leaning city. It's got a lot of lifelong Democrats, some Reagan-era Republicans, and a lot of younger people who would describe themselves generally as leftists who feel separate from the Democratic Party as a whole. Outside the auditorium, there were people overflowing into the halls. Inside the auditorium, you had supporters waving signs for Hageman, young people screaming fascist, some people began debating with each other in the crowd. Hageman appeared to play into it sometimes, however.
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HARRIET HAGEMAN: It's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government. But here's the thing...
(BOOING)
UPLINGER: The crowd asked a lot about things like Trump's top adviser, Elon Musk, and the cuts he's proposing. The crowd also applauded questions about Trump's use of power, farmers who use federal subsidies, native lands and federal cuts to the Forest Service.
RASCOE: And, Barbara, that same night, you were about 200 miles away with Democrats in Golden, Colorado, just west of Denver. Did you hear the same kind of anger?
SPRUNT: There was some anger but mostly exasperation from folks saying that Democrats aren't doing enough in their view to respond to the actions of the Trump administration. A lot of people asking about what kind of concrete plans they might see going forward. One person, Amanda (ph), who introduced herself without her last name, told lawmakers she's just very frustrated.
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AMANDA: I have heard a lot of other people ask, is there a plan? Is there a plan? And it really doesn't seem like there's a plan.
SPRUNT: Someone else asked, why does this Mike Johnson have so much power? Talking, of course, about the speaker of the House. And Senator Michael Bennet and Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen both had to kind of explain some of the political realities going on here. You know, that Republicans won both chambers in November, and that means that Democrats are limited in what they can do on Capitol Hill. So they talked about what they can do, you know, trying to reach out to people who may have voted for President Trump but don't like how his policies are shaping up. They talked about changing hearts and minds. Senator Bennet said that the party needs a new plan for the future, one that's compelling, that focuses on the economy and speaks to working people. And then he said this.
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MICHAEL BENNET: And it's not going to be with the same old playbook, and it may not be with the same old people, to be honest.
RASCOE: That sounds kind of ominous for the folks in Democratic leadership. Did he get more specific?
SPRUNT: You know, he got close a few times to suggesting a leadership change in the Senate, but he stopped short of calling for it outright. This comes amid criticism from him and others in the party of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer for the way that he handled the strategy and the messaging of a vote last week that advanced a GOP spending bill and averted a government shutdown.
RASCOE: Jordan, you saw a very different town hall the next day when Congresswoman Hageman met with voters in a more conservative area. Did that event have the kind of frustration that we've heard so far?
UPLINGER: So this was largely a very supportive crowd in the more right-leaning area of Wheatland. The Republicans who came out were primarily self-described Trump conservatives. These were the people that voted out former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and voted for Hageman. They were very eager to talk to the congresswoman. Lots of questions were asked. Most were rooted in state and local issues, things like wild horses and VA offices in the state. But there were also people who said that they had - and I'm quoting - "a bit of a bone to pick," especially in regards to potential closures of Social Security offices in the area or potential cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Elon Musk was a hot-button topic here as well.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Right now, we have an unelected billionaire who is...
(BOOING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Get out. Get out.
(BOOING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You just said...
HAGEMAN: Please let her ask her question.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You just described...
UPLINGER: So even if they had questions about how some policies might be implemented, most of these voters were on board with Trump and his administration.
RASCOE: Barbara, ultimately, these town halls, you know, they're just a snapshot in time, but it seems like they raise a lot of questions about where both parties go from here.
SPRUNT: I think so. I mean, I think leaders in both parties have things to grapple with. On the Republican side of things, are there going to be more town halls? I mean, Jordan went to one of the few in-person ones this week. Is that going to change, and how will constituents react I wonder if there's a prolonged period of their representatives not meeting with them in this kind of a forum? And then, on the Democratic side, I think there are big questions about the way in which the party presents itself to the public. You know, one thing that's been interesting to me - lawmakers were asked, like, who is the leader of the Democratic Party right now? Their answer was, essentially, there isn't one. It's up to all of them. And that's in tension with what people on the ground are calling for. The people that I talked to said they want one person leading the charge that the whole party can coalesce around.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Barbara Sprunt and Wyoming Public Media's Jordan Uplinger. Thank you so much.
SPRUNT: Thank you.
UPLINGER: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF AZYMUTH'S "UNKNOWN JAM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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