Contentious Republican town halls are going viral
In a TikTok video from CNN that has been viewed more than 3 million times since late February, the voice of a voter in Roswell, Georgia, pierces through a town hall event held by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA).
“Tyranny is rising in the White House, and a man has declared himself our king,” the woman says. “So I would like to know, rather, the people would like to know, what you, congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.” Her voice is unwavering, each syllable enunciated perfectly. She speaks slowly and deliberately, and her Southern accent brings a different kind of intensity.
The sound bite is perfect for the age of shortform video. Hundreds of people have uploaded clips of themselves lip-syncing to the woman’s question. “Who is this diva?” is a common response, along with many iterations of “Vote [McCormick] out.”
Across the country, town halls like the event in Roswell have become the setting for constituents and their elected representatives to come face-to-face — often contentiously. Republican representatives have been booed out of their own events and drowned out after giving unsatisfactory responses. In Idaho, a woman was dragged out of an event by workers of a private security firm for “heckling” legislators. In a different timeline, these confrontations might have circulated in local news reports but not much further; now, they go viral, agitating even those at the highest levels of government. The tough questions come from people who identify themselves as Republicans as well as from Democrats, and many are attending town hall events for the first time, activated by the gutting of the federal government and services.
Lindsay DeFranco arrived at the Roswell town hall on February 20th well ahead of the start time to ensure she’d get a seat. (The event had overflow rooms to contain all the attendees.)
DeFranco, who had never attended a town hall before, says she decided to pull out her phone and record the event so she could share clips, unedited and without commentary. On TikTok, DeFranco shared a video of an exchange about school lunches for low-income kids (100,000 views); legislation that would disenfranchise women from voting (6 million views); and the now-viral “Tyranny is rising in the White House” moment (630,000 views).
She saw McCormick questioned about everything from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to support for Ukraine, to school lunch programs for kids. DeFranco, who grew up in the area and recently moved back, said McCormick came off as “dismissive” and “snide.”
“I don’t think he was listening very well, and if he was, he wasn’t truly wanting to engage with us,” DeFranco says. “At one point, he said, ‘I don’t think you guys came here in good faith,’ and that really set us off, too. Because we’re like, ‘Are you here in good faith?’”
“I really wanted people to see this is exactly what was asked, this is exactly what was said, and this is how people reacted,” DeFranco says. “They had told us that it wasn’t going to be live streamed. So I thought, ‘I have to film this right away. I have to document this.’”
Across the country, in Yucca Valley, California, Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) faced a similarly tough crowd at his February 22nd community meeting in a congressional district that he won handily in November. Footage shows Obernolte being ushered out of the event to loud boos and shouts from the audience, who questioned the legislator about DOGE, cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other issues.
E., an attendee at the event, was especially concerned about how DOGE and the Trump administration’s actions would affect the nearby Joshua Tree National Park. The New York Times counted at least 1,000 National Park employees who were terminated by the Trump administration in February, including some at Joshua Tree. (E. asked The Verge that they be identified by first initial only, fearing harassment.)
“That’s a big part of our economy. With the reduced staffing, we could obviously lose tourism,” E. says about the cuts to Joshua Tree. “It could impact local businesses and jobs, not to mention the environmental degradation, the risk for wildfires. Without Rangers, we have less resources to protect our park.”
E. says they previously did not have strong feelings about how well Obernolte had been representing the community but believed that listening to constituents was a key part of his job. The event was packed with constituents, and E. says it appeared to be an equal mix of Democrats and Republicans. There were young people and older community members, veterans, and some people that had signs related to cuts at the National Parks. At the beginning, the atmosphere was calm — nobody was aggressive or “name calling.” But it quickly turned, E. says, when the audience felt like Obernolte wasn’t addressing local issues people cared about. One man, in particular, caught E.’s attention: he was calm and collected, clapping when veterans issues were mentioned. But he seemed to be losing patience — he began shaking his head back and forth in frustration.
“That’s kind of when [I wanted] to do a video, because I want to document that this isn’t just coming from one side or the other,” E. says. “This feels a lot like the town itself is unhappy, and that’s what resonated with me.”
“I was there. I’m a real human. Just saying we’re a paid actor is like — when is our check coming?”
Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump himself have pushed the false claim that “paid protestors” are behind the angry town halls. The pushback has rattled Republicans — earlier this month, House GOP leadership advised representatives to stop holding in-person town hall meetings. E. and others interviewed for this story refute the false claims that paid operatives are the people showing up to events.
“I was there. I’m a real human,” E. says. “Just saying we’re a paid actor is like — when is our check coming? Because I would love to donate that to our national park, if it is,” E. jokes.
Some Republicans have instead opted to do virtual events, like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who held a telephone town hall on February 27th. Autumn Marshall, a constituent, says she wanted to attend the event because she has been contacting Johnson’s office and has never gotten a response. Marshall says she is particularly concerned about the Department of Education and wanted to hear what Johnson’s plans were to fund schools in the state as well as Musk’s role in government and the future of Medicaid. By the time the call started, 400 questions had already poured in.
During the call, Marshall says Johnson appeared to enjoy the questions from callers who complimented or praised him — but went so far as to cut off callers who asked him difficult questions. It wasn’t clear to Marshall how questions were selected in the telephone format.
“I personally feel that’s kind of a cop out,” Marshall says. “It was really easy for him to just hang up on somebody, versus us being in front of him where people could maybe still keep talking.”
After the event, Marshall made a series of TikToks summarizing the event, describing what voters had asked and how Johnson had responded.
“I think that [elected officials] like to kind of fly under the radar, and they do need more light shone on them to see what they’re doing, what they’re saying,” Marshall says.
Trump and members of his administration are posters first, politicians second
Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for Johnson, told The Verge that the senator has held 113 telephone town halls in his 15 years in the Senate. Pels did not respond to questions about whether Johnson would hold in-person events but noted that his office uploads recordings of phone town halls to X. McCormick’s and Obernolte’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.
Part of what catapulted Trump to the White House both times he has been elected is that he has figured out how to dominate in the attention economy: he and members of his administration are posters first, politicians second. The Kamala Harris campaign gave Trump a run for his money, but Democrats have largely been unable to wrest control of media narratives from the troll accounts, conspiracy theory podcasters, and a right-wing media ecosystem that props up Trump.
The viral town halls have bubbled up organically — and some Democrats have recognized the power vacuum opening up. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said last week that he will hold town halls in Republican districts, as has Tim Walz, Minnesota governor and Harris running mate. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) similarly said in an interview that if a deep red district wanted to host her, she would “be willing to do that.” Getting constituents across the political spectrum angrily confronting Republican lawmakers — and then going a step further and sharing that frustration online — has the potential to shake up the balance of power, at least on the internet.
DeFranco, who attended the town hall in Roswell, Georgia, says the current political moment is “lighting a fire” under her. She has attended other events with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters. In turn, DeFranco says she wants Democratic leaders to be more outspoken and take a stronger stance against the Trump agenda.
“At the State of the Union when they just wore pink in solidarity, or held up the little auction paddles to say things — I don’t think that’s enough,” DeFranco says. “I think it looks weak, and I think we’re going to continue getting taken advantage of until we vocally stand up for ourselves.”