News · Press Release

House Democrats Are Showing Up & Listening, Keeping a Dominant Focus on Kitchen Table Issues

Back Home, House Democrats Are Holding Town Halls and Focusing on Healthcare, Economy, Gun Violence Prevention & Fighting for Families

While freshman Democrats uphold their responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable in Washington, back home they are laser-focused on touting their priorities and accomplishments that improve the lives of hardworking families. House Democrats are talking to their voters about kitchen table issues: lowering the cost of healthcare, accessible and affordable child care, education, and other relevant issues impacting their communities.

 

Unlike Republicans who continue to avoid answering to their constituents at home, the huge number of town halls, forums and roundtables held by Democrats across the country are a reminder that House Democrats are putting accessibility first and continuing to make listening to their constituents a priority.

 

Democrats are keeping their promise to change Washington and ensure that Congress works for the people by lowering the cost of healthcare and growing the economy,” said DCCC spokesperson Cole Leiter. “After years of being represented by Republicans, freshmen Democrats are showing up at home and listening to voters in town halls and forums across the country, showing voters what prioritizing everyday people, not big special interests, actually looks like.” 

 

Here’s what Freshman Democrats are focused on:

 

CA-10: Rep. Harder Talks Gun Control, Climate Change With Young Crowd at Modesto Town Hall

FOX 40 | Joe Khalil

 

MODESTO — At a town hall event Tuesday at Modesto Junior College, Congressman Josh Harder took questions from mostly teens about issues that matter to them.

 

The issues the group ranked as their most pressing were paying for college, climate change and gun control.

 

[…]

 

Absent from many of the concerns Tuesday was the one subject the congressman hears the most about when he is back in Washington, D.C. – impeachment.

 

[…]

 

I’ve been very cautious about this,” Harder said. “This was not a political calculation, this is a moral and constitutional obligation. When you have clear evidence of a president putting his own self-interests in front of our nation’s security, you have to take action.”

 

CA-21: Kern Medical, Rep. TJ Cox host town hall forum on Valley Fever

KGET | Eytan Wallace

 

Roughly 100 people, including elected officials, medical professionals, students, and Valley Fever patients gathered at Bakersfield College Thursday for a town hall on Valley Fever.

 

Congressman TJ Cox co-hosted the forum where he discussed Valley Fever-related legislation he plans to introduce in congress.

 

“This affects so many people and so many communities,” the Congressman said as he spoke on a panel that included medical professionals, patients, and Valley Fever experts.

 

CA-48: Rouda Speaks on Local Issues in Newport Beach

Laguna Beach Indy | LB Indy Staff

 

Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) is making the rounds at various meetings in Newport Beach this week, talking about his time in office so far, addressing local issues, and answering residents’ questions.

 

Rouda is set to speak to constituents in Laguna Beach next week at a meeting on homelessness issues hosted by City Councilman Peter Blake at the Susi Q Center, 380 Third Street, from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 12.

 

The freshman congressman spoke at two community meetings this week, first at the Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club on Tuesday, Oct. 1, followed by the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Wake Up Newport on Thursday, Oct. 3.

 

On Thursday, Rouda gave a brief speech, covering his reasons for running, what he’s been doing in Washington and touting a few accomplishments, before diving into the Q&A portion of the meeting.

 

Resident Dennis Baker asked Rouda about water quality issues, specifically where federal waters are concerned, regarding offshore drilling and dredging.

 

CA-49: Mike Levin Hosts Town Hall on Local Issues

 

 

IA-03: Axne, Klobuchar hold ag roundtable

KMA Land | Mike Peterson

 

(Council Bluffs) — A Democratic presidential candidate joins Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne in hosting a special event aimed at agricultural issues.

 

Axne and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar moderate an agricultural roundtable at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy in Council Bluffs Thursday morning at 10. Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” program Wednesday morning, Axne says part of the discussion will focus on what she calls the Environmental Protection Agency’s misuse of biofuel waivers, and its impact on the ag industry.

 

IA-03: AMID IMPEACHMENT, CINDY AXNE FOCUSES ON HEALTH CARE POLICY

Iowa Starting Line | Elizabeth Meyer

 

Congresswoman Cindy Axne told constituents Tuesday the United States had hit a “crisis point” in its health care system.

 

“Suffice it to say, you’ve got a group of people in Congress who truly understand we’re at a crisis point,” said Axne, Iowa’s 3rd District representative, at a roundtable health care discussion in Des Moines. “Whether it’s rural America or urban America, we all can’t afford what we’re facing. We have people who are falling through the cracks. We’ve got a lot that we need to do.”

 

In spite of a recently launched impeachment inquiry, Axne said House Democrats intended to stay focused on policy solutions to help their home districts.

 

“I don’t worry that anything around the impeachment inquiry will affect Democrats’ ability, and the House’s ability, to move good bills forward,” Axne told Starting Line. “I’m doing business as usual.”

 

For Axne, “business as usual” included releasing a bill to ward against African Swine Fever on the same day Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

 

MN-02: Education tops resident concerns at Craig’s Twin Oaks town hall

SW News Media | Meg Britton-Mehlisch

 

Teachers and school officials in Prior Lake are looking for ways to improve school finances, teacher pay and the achievement gap among students. When Congresswoman Angie Craig, D-Minnesota, came to a local middle school Saturday, they wanted to know how she was helping.

 

Craig spent an hour-long town hall event in Twin Oaks Middle School talking about a variety of topics including the trade war, prescription drug prices, climate change and impeachment, but education issues rose to the top.

 

OK-05: KOCO: Rep. Kendra Horn hosts round table on mental health 

 

PA-07: How Rep. Susan Wild Is Balancing The Impeachment Inquiry, Her Constituents’ Concerns

NPR | Claudia Grisales

 

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Susan Wild recently came out in support of the impeachment inquiry, but her constituents say they want her to focus on pocketbook issues.

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Impeachment may be taking up most of the oxygen on Capitol Hill these days. That’s not necessarily the case in House swing districts. One moderate Democrat is balancing pocketbook issues and an investigation of the president. NPR congressional reporter Claudia Grisales has more.

 

CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Susan Wild says she didn’t run on impeachment, but she just recently backed a House Democrats inquiry. She’s a freshman lawmaker from a labor-heavy district, and she really wants her constituents to know her time is focused on committee work that has nothing to do with investigating the president.

 

SUSAN WILD: I’m going to say it again so you can tell other people who think that all we’re doing down there is, you know, living, breathing and foaming at the mouth for impeachment. I get really testy on this when people say that because I spend 90% of my committee time in education and labor.

 

PA-07: “We need young people to succeed.’ Congresswoman Susan Wild hosts Allentown forum on child care

The Morning Call | Margie Peterson

 

How do you keep talented staff for high quality child care centers when paying them what they are worth means a center has to price parents out of the market?

 

That was one of the questions at the heart of a forum Monday evening at the Resurrected Life Community Church in Allentown that attracted about 150 people. The forum was organized by U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, the Lehigh Valley congresswoman who brought in federal, state and local panelists to answer questions from the public and encourage advocacy for more government subsidies for parents who need child care.

 

[…]

 

One of the remarks I get most often … is along the lines of ‘Well, nobody helped me so why should my tax dollars go to help other people, or youngsters in the community, when nobody helped me?’” Wild said.

 

She said the answer is society and the economy depend on an educated workforce. “We need young people to succeed, so they can continue to build our economy and grow our economy,” Wild said. “So that people who want to retire someday have a base of working people who are there to help them and the Social Security system. It’s really a community-based effort to make our economy continue to work. It starts with making sure people get the education they need.”





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