Amid widespread outcry about the Trump administration’s cutbacks to federal programs and agencies, Republican leaders last month urged members of the House of Representatives not to hold town halls in their home districts.
On Monday, Coastal Georgia’s congressman, Buddy Carter, spurned that advice. Kind of.
The five-term lawmaker from St. Simons held a telephone town hall from Washington instead, fielding 11 questions in about 50 minutes.
Carter offered his views on topics ranging from wayward judges blocking Donald Trump’s agenda (“unelected, activist judges . . . undoing his policy decisions from the bench”) to the fate of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare (“The president has been clear: Do not touch Social Security. Do not touch Medicare. Do not touch Medicaid”).
The questioners, all from Coastal Georgia as required by the town hall’s organizers, thanked the 67-year-old Carter for the opportunity to address him. None had a sore word or biting criticism, a fact for which he was no doubt grateful.
‘Not productive’
Following several contentious open-door, in-person town halls, Carter hasn’t held any in Coastal Georgia since 2018, according to a search of media outlets in Coastal Georgia. He and his office don’t view them as “productive,” said a source with direct knowledge of Carter’s discussions with his staff about communication strategy.
Carter didn’t regard debates with political opponents in last year’s reelection as “productive,” either. He refused at least three face-to-face debates with his Democratic opponent, Patti Hewitt, in Bryan, McIntosh and Chatham, according to Republican and Democratic Party organizers in those counties.
Asked by one caller on Monday when he was going to again hold an in-person town hall in Coastal Georgia, Carter didn’t answer, though he acknowledged that “a lot of people have been requesting these.” Instead, he defended the telephone town hall format, saying it’s “efficient” and reaches “so many more people” than an in-person town hall.
“We communicate in this office as well as any office in Congress,” he said of his staff. “We let you know what we’re doing, where we’re going to be, what we’re trying to achieve.”
In addressing Carter, the questioner implored him to hold in-person town halls. “We love the in-person factor,” explained the woman, identified only as Keyshawn. “You are a representative of the people. [We] want to see our representatives in action whenever we can.”
Carter didn’t relent. He said in-person town halls “can get out of control,” adding that “we had some problems” at past town halls, which led police to request that he not “do them again.” He did not specify what the problems were. Nor did he identify which police asked him to stop holding in-person town halls.
Regular occurrence
Although members of Congress have no legal obligation to hold town halls of any kind, it is unlikely that Monday’s slickly produced event will quiet the growing clamor among Carter’s constituents for face-to-face answers to questions about the effects of cost-cutting and tariffs on government programs they’ve come to rely upon.
Demonstrations outside Carter’s offices in Savannah and Brunswick are now a regular occurrence. In Brunswick, the protests are ad hoc, made up of a cross-section of retirees, military veterans, county Democrats and members of a local women’s group. Discussions are underway about better ways to communicate their concerns.
Carter was invited to attend a town hall at The Brick in Brunswick last week where, the meeting announcement said, concerns of “residents of the Golden Isles” for the “future of working-class Americans” would be discussed. He did not show.
Carter evidently remains keen to avoid a public scrap or humiliation.
Asked last month by Scott Ryfun, a conservative talk show host in Brunswick, whether people “agitating” for him to hold in-person town halls were “sincere in wanting to talk to him” or “just trying to figure out a way to create a spectacle,” Carter said he thought it was “a combination of both.”
This story was provided by WABE content partner The Current.
