New On The Market: 'Empty Chair' Town Halls [View all]

Source: Talking Points Memo

March 23, 2025 7:47 p.m.


They’re happening: ’empty chair’ town halls in Republican districts pretty much all over the place. This weekend we’ve got reports in Columbus, Ohio for Sens, Moreno and Husted, on Maryland’s eastern shore, where Jamie Raskin had to show up in place of Andy Harris, in Little Rock for French Hill, Tom Cotton and John Boozman, in Lexington for Andy Barr.

These are, I must say, quite ingenious. Almost all of these are very red districts. And they’re not a few people showing up holding signs. The one in Little Rock had 800 attendees. There were reportedly 1,000 in Lexington. The others seem to have had comparable numbers if not quite that many.

When people want town halls because they want to express displeasure to their Trump-Elon-supporting members of Congress it’s pretty striking that you can get this kind of turn out when those folks are not even going to be there. These events create a big, fat news pegs for stories and conversation about the fact that Republicans are refusing to face their constituents. On top of that they’re powerful organizing events. It’s basically all win.

From anecdotal reports and eyeballing photos the attendees seem to be mostly middle-aged and predominantly white. That’s not surprising. That’s basically the Democrats’ suburban normie high-voter-turnout base.

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/new-on-the-market-empty-chair-town-halls