Rep. Darrell Issa, San Diego County’s lone Republican member of Congress, has not held a large in-person town hall in his East County district since taking office in 2021. His last notable town halls were in 2017, including a sometimes rowdy one in his previous North County district. However, Times of San Diego found that none of the county’s four Democratic House members held any in-person town halls in 2024 either.
In a closed-door meeting this week, House Republicans were urged to stop holding in-person town halls to avoid becoming the subjects of embarrassing viral videos. However, Rep. Issa didn’t need that order from NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina. Rep. Issa hasn’t held a large in-person meeting in his East County district since taking office in 2021. His last notable town halls were in 2017, including a sometimes rowdy one in his previous North County district.
The offices of Reps. Sara Jacobs, Scott Peters, and Juan Vargas didn’t respond to my queries about any plans for an in-person town hall in their district this year. Rep. Sara Jacobs took 18 questions in her latest telephone town hall, including: What can we do to get President Musk to go back to Africa?
In 2022, the Center for Effective Lawmaking noted that reps aren’t required to hold town hall meetings, and yet American lawmakers have held more than 23,000 such events over the past eight years, even at the risk of embarrassing headlines and viral video baggage. Its 43-page study found 23,068 town hall meetings hosted by 793 different members of the U.S. Congress. Over 67% (15,600) of recorded town halls are in-person events, while the rest take a varied form of remote formats.
Contrary to our expectations, we found no evidence that high-performing lawmakers neglected their district, said the Virginia-based center. Instead, we found that legislators with few legislative accomplishments also chose to hold fewer town hall meetings. Further, Members of the party not in the White House hold substantially more town halls.
Levin spokesman Batchelder said: Rep. Levin believes that representative is more than his job title. It’s his job description. He is committed to listening to his constituents and addressing their concerns. Issa spokesman Wilcox suggested town halls don’t deliver much bang for the buck. We get more direct connection (and needed casework) out of our mobile office hours in less-populated areas than any series of town halls I can remember, he said. We also did either four or five military pinning events with veterans in past years I think that literally brought Rep. Issa into personal one-on-one contact with more constituents than literally 20 town halls.
Wilcox added: I’m well aware of the political moment and town halls, but we concluded years ago we had better ways to connect with the district.
