Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (AP) – Several days in the past two weeks, no one answered the phone to any of us, the four offices of Scott Perry.
The Perry team has not shared details on the public appearances of the Republican Congress until its end. Even supporters who live in the central district of Perry of Pennsylvania did not remember the last time he organized a town hall in person.
No one opened the locked door from his district office in Mechanicsburg last week when a journalist by Associated Press sounded the bell. A male voice said through the intercom: “I have no public appearance information that I can provide.”
The American house puts an end to a recess of 17 days, generally known as the district working period, in which the members of the Congress return home to focus on their voters. But some of the most vulnerable Republicans have limited their potential exposure to the potential backlash Since The first months in power of President Donald Trump.
They adopt the strategy described by the leaders of the GOP in Washington who argue that there is no advantage in creating more viral moments such as the crowd in Asheville, in North Carolina, that HOUED US REP. Chuck Edwards and sharp questions about the prices and deportations that were Directed by us, Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa.
Perry, who won the re -election of last fall last fall last fall, is one of the most vulnerable republicans in the room, as measured by their margins of victory last fall. They were particularly difficult to find during recess, although it is difficult to verify many of the public hours due to the incoherent responses of their offices.
None of them, a collection of district swing conservatives from all of Arizona, Colorado, California, Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, organized events in person that were open to the public. Only one has planned a telephone town hall. Others have favored smaller invitation rallies only with local officials promoted only after their end.
The lack of access to the Republicans was not suitable for certain voters.
“These are publicly elected officials. They should be accessible to the public,” said Republican voter Robert Barton, a 57 -year -old civil engineer, while waiting for his lunch at Italian Delight Pizzeria in front of the Perry office in Mechanicsburg.
The Perry team did not respond to several requests for comments.
The Republicans defend their strategy
The veteran strategist for the GOP, Doug Heye, argued that intersecting with voters in “planned and controlled way” is more productive than town halls for the members of the Congress. “And it's intelligent for any politician,” he said.
The National Committee of the Republican Congress, the campaign arm of the Republicans of the Chamber, does not encourage targeted members to stay outside of the public, said a spokesperson.
Instead, the NRCC encourages the legislators to meet their voters in public, but to be wary of events that could divert attention from the message and the agenda of a member of the Chamber, according to the spokesman for the NRCC, Mike Marinella.
“We tell everyone, go out and meet people. You have to be in front of your voters,” said Marinella. “Use each avenue you can.”
The president of the Mike Johnson room, R-La., Recently suggested that some of the people participating in public meetings with members “do this as a profession, they are professional demonstrators”. He urged legislators to consider calling so-called Télé-Tele room meetings, dial-in conferences where thousands of people can listen and legislators answer issues.
In 2010, under pressure on the overhaul of health care which became known as Obamacare, a certain number of Democrats in the Chamber jumped public events after facing the angry town hall the previous summer. Some take place in place of meetings in the Télé-Ville room.
Then the president of the house Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Co-written an opinion article Referring to certain protests such as “non -American” and denouncing a “ugly campaign (for) disturbing public meetings and preventing members of the Congress and voters from carrying out a civil dialogue”.
A little less than a decade later, the House Republicans trying to repeal that health law was also accused of running the town hall. The president of the time, Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Said that he would stop holding the town halls to limit access to demonstrators outside his district.
Democrats in 2010 and Republicans in 2018 would continue to lose their majority in the House.
Democrats intervene
The National Democratic Committee, supported by organized work and other progressive groups in certain states, launched dozens of “town hall” and “good troubles” in the districts where Republicans will not organize public events.
Democrats bet their strategy will give them an advantage during the 2026 elections, when control of the congress will be decided during the last two years of Trump's last term. Historically, the party that holds the White House loses seats halfway through. And for the moment, the Republicans would lose the majority of the house if they lost a net of only two seats.
The president of the National Republican Committee, Michael Whatley, developed it during an appearance during the fundraising of Iowa Faith and Freedom Spring this month.
“This mid-term electoral cycle will determine whether we have a four-year presidency or a two-year presidency,” Whatley told an audience of 700 republican activists from Iowa and social conservative leaders. Referring to the takeover of the 2018 Democratic Chamber, he warned of room investigations and a Blocked Trump program which “dropped the administration of his feet”.
Where are the Republicans?
Mariannette Miller-Meeks is an Iowa republican who won last fall by 799 votes, the closest election in the country's American room.
She spoke during the collection of Faith and Freedom funds, but she spent the recess of Easter to meet with much smaller groups in more controlled environments: a wheel accessories factory, several groups of companies in the regions of monks and Davenport, a meeting of the Rotary Club and a revolutionary for a medical center in eastern Iowa.
Most of its voters would have learned stops by checking Miller-Meeks' social media accounts afterwards. Miller-Meeks, like his colleagues member of the most targeted Republican Chamber, offered little or no public opinion of his appearances.
Like the other Republicans of the country's most competitive chamber of districts, it did not organize any event open to all voters, or planned for the rest of the break, which ended on Sunday.
Aid for us, the representative Don Bacon, who represents the 2nd district of the Nebraska Congress, confirmed that the Republican had had no open events or planned before the end of the break. Bacon's X account included a post from last weekend where he seemed to attend a hunt for Easter eggs in the south of the Omaha.
On the ground in a swing key district
Back in the Harrisburg Perry district, the Democrats are optimistic that they are well placed to defeat the republican of seven mandates, former president of the House Freedom Caucus from House Freedom Caucus.
He beat Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former local television broadcaster, by 5,000 votes last fall. Stelson plans to start another campaign against Perry in July.
“The job title is representative. This is not really you, it is what the people you are talking about and want you to do for them,” she said. “And I do not understand how he can know what it is that when he has never come out among us.”
Some voters have taken note.
Tim Shollenberger, a resident of Mechanicsburg who was a republican recorded until recently, had a hard time being heard during the April 2 television room in Perry.
The participants were not allowed to ask questions directly, so the 69 -year -old lawyer submitted three questions in writing: one on the critical comments of Elon Musk on Social Security and two on the lack of public access of Perry.
The moderator asked none.
“If you really care about your voters, get in a room and face them,” said Shollenberger.
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Beaumont reported to monks, Iowa.
