House Republicans this week were urged in a closed-door meeting to stop holding in-person town halls to avoid becoming the subjects of embarrassing viral videos.
San Diego County’s lone GOP member of Congress didn’t need that order from NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina.
Rep. Darrell 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.
But Times of San Diego found that none of the county’s four Democratic House members held any in-person town halls in 2024 either.
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.
In a telephone town hall Feb. 27, however, Jacobs was asked about Democrats holding meetings in red districts.
Jacobs replied: “We are looking at holding field … hearings in different places and in shared media markets. … I think town halls are important.”
Rep. Mike Levin’s press secretary, Scott Batchelder, said the North County coastal congressman has held a town hall every month of his tenure — although not listing any recent in-person forums.
Last month, he said, Levin held his 120th town hall since taking office in 2019.
“He holds his town halls in several different formats, including in-person, virtual and telephone town halls,” Batchelder said. “In 2025, Representative Levin will hold at least 12 town halls and they will vary in format.”
Issa’s press secretary is Jonathan Wilcox. He defended his boss’s absence from the town hall circuit.
“I understand how this is in vogue right now, But in my experience, in-person town halls are very hit or miss,” Wilcox said via email. “I’ve been to good ones with a lot of interesting dialogue and, unfortunately, others where a lot of people told us they felt left out and unable to find a way to join the conversation.”
Wilcox said Issa’s office has always employed “the most complete mix we could use. I think it’s worked very well.”
On Feb. 21, however, a protest outside Issa’s Escondido office begged to differ.
East County Magazine previewed a rally calling on Issa to hold a town hall.
“Congressman Issa has a responsibility to represent the voices of his constituents, and that includes holding town hall meetings where we can express our concerns,” Pam Albergo of Indivisible North County San Diego told ECM. “We are here to demand that he stands up against the reckless actions that undermine our government and its agencies.”
Asked to confirm that Issa had no in-person town halls in 2024 and planned none in 2025, Wilcox said: “At least in my view, town halls went out of widespread use years ago. Definitely before COVID.”
He’s right about a decline at least.
According to a recent report in Legistorm, only 1,018 town hall events were held in 2024, the lowest annual number since the Congress info service began tracking such data in 2013.
“By comparison, the 2024 total was 53.4% lower than the combined average of 2,317 events per year for all years LegiStorm has complete data,” it said. “This marks the third consecutive year that town halls have dipped below 2,000 total events.”
Before 2022, it added, the average number of town hall events per year was 2,685.
“Even 2020, which was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, had 2,756 town hall events despite only 16% of them taking place in person,” said the report.
A July 2024 Legistorm report said GOP members of Congress had overtaken Democrats in holding town halls, holding 42% more despite a historical advantage for Democrats.
“The difference grows wider when considering in-person town halls rather than phone or virtual ones,” the report said. “About 75% of GOP-held town halls, or 236, were in person versus only 58%, or 127, for Democrats. Safety concerns are frequently cited as a reason Democrats don’t hold more in-person town halls.”
But since 2019, Democrats have hosted more town halls each year than Republicans.
“However, the number of Democratic town halls has steadily decreased since 2020, which saw 1,992 town halls.” Legistorm said. “Democratic town halls dropped below 1,000 for the first time in 2022 and dropped to 685 town halls in 2023. The number was only 2% more than Republican town halls.”
By July 8, 2024, Democrats held only 221 town halls for the year, lagging far behind Republicans, who had hosted 315 town halls by that summer.
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Political science professor Thad Kousser of UC San Diego left the question of why town halls are valuable by saying this is up to the House members.
But Saturday, he offered his take on why Congress members should hold in-person meetings.
“They give voters a chance to have their say and to hear answers, allowing them to see their elected leader as the person beyond just the headline, tweet or attack ad,” Kousser said via email. “Politicians get a crucial read on some aspects of public opinion but also the chance to explain their own positions and have an exchange of ideas, which is all too rare in today’s politics.”
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,” said the Virginia-based center.
“Contrary to our expectations, we found no evidence that high-performing lawmakers neglected their district,” the study said. “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.”
