{"id":41038,"date":"2025-04-15T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41038"},"modified":"2025-04-15T22:15:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T03:15:42","slug":"ive-held-town-halls-with-voters-what-ive-seen-should-have-republicans-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41038","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve held town halls with voters. What I\u2019ve seen should have Republicans worried."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is an adapted excerpt from the April 14\u2002<\/a>episode of \u201cThe Last Word with Lawrence O\u2019Donnell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the country, Americans are turning up at town halls to voice their opposition to Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s second administration. Voters are angry over Trump\u2019s and Elon Musk\u2019s drastic federal cuts<\/a> and the complicity of Republican representatives<\/a> in those efforts. As someone who has helped run several of these town halls across Florida, I\u2019ve noticed some similar themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, there is palpable anxiety and unrest present. People are concerned about their individual financial security. They\u2019re worried about Trump\u2019s tariffs and their effect on the market and people\u2019s retirement savings<\/a>. Americans who receive Social Security<\/a>, veterans benefits\u2002<\/a>or other government services are scared they could lose everything. The DOGE cuts are real for many Americans, and they are concerned about how much worse things could get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters want to know that their representative is fighting for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fear and anxiety aside, the level of energy I\u2019ve seen at these town halls is just remarkable. At the beginning of each event, I ask the crowd two questions. First: \u201cAre you excited today to be a Democrat?\u201d People roar in response. They\u2019re excited about being a Democrat in this moment. They\u2019re not lying down. They\u2019re not concerned about the overall brand of the Democratic Party; they just believe in its values. They believe Democrats will provide the vessel to not just beat back Trumpism, but also offer a positive alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you look at the 2024 election results, Democrats lost for several reasons, but one of those reasons was that too many Democratic voters stayed home<\/a>. That\u2019s not the case now. They are motivated, and they are showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second question I ask is \u201cAre there any first-time attendees? Is this your first time at a town hall or a Democratic event?\u201d I\u2019m astounded at the number of people who say yes. On Monday, we had a crowd of about 350 people at one of these events; around 75 raised their hands and said this was their first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those kinds of numbers are important. Another reason Democrats lost in November is that Trump turned out a lot of first-time voters<\/a>. But now we\u2019re seeing first-time participants in politics say they want to be a part of the Democratic coalition. That\u2019s huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, voters want to know that their representative is fighting for them. Republicans in Washington have collapsed; they\u2019ve given in to Trumpism. It\u2019s time for Democrats to show the American people whom they\u2019re fighting for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These town halls have shown me that there is a political movement going on right now, and it\u2019s a powerful thing to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

msnbc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an adapted excerpt from the April 14\u2002episode of \u201cThe Last Word with Lawrence O\u2019Donnell.\u201d Across the country, Americans are turning up at town halls to voice their opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s second administration. Voters are angry over Trump\u2019s and Elon Musk\u2019s drastic federal cuts and the complicity of Republican representatives in those efforts. As someone who has helped run […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32974,6689,10438],"class_list":["post-41038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-halls","tag-town","tag-ve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41040,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41038\/revisions\/41040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}