Glenn Thompson’s cardboard cutout took some real abuse on Saturday, as a room full of Pennsylvania Democrats let out their frustrations.
A few other members of the state’s congressional delegation might be thankful that his likeness was the only one on display.
Thompson, on his fourth term in the House of Representatives, is just one of dozens of Republican lawmakers who have scaled back public events or avoided them completely amid nationwide outrage from Americans set to see steep cuts to funding for programs in their communities and their own personal safety nets under a Trump 2.0 agenda. Town hall events have become raucous gatherings where Republicans like Victoria Spartz, Chuck Edwards and others have been forced to confront angry voters demanding Congress take action to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE firing spree affecting the Social Security Administration, USAID and other agencies.
The “People’s Town Hall” event Saturday just off the campus of Penn State was no gathering of college-age radicals as conservatives often imagine their opponents to be. A crowd that skewed post-retirement asked a panel of state and local Democratic electeds about everything from Social Security to safeguarding international students from efforts by the federal government to deport visa holders who engage in protected First Amendment protest and dissent. A moderator began the event by noting that “all” county, state and congressional leaders representing Centre County had been invited to attend — most had declined.
As a result the event’s headliner was Conor Lamb, the former congressman who ran unsuccessfully against now-Senator John Fetterman for the latter’s seat in 2022. Lamb was easily the biggest crowd-drawer of the bunch, which also included two state representatives, two county officials, a former congressional candidate and a former State Department official.
The ex-congressman, who took the stage in jeans and a plain long-sleeve shirt, spoke to residents as a private citizen with only his past background in Congress and the Marine Corps informing his responses.
He previewed no future run for Congress or elected office at the event, though one attendee told The Independent that the ex-congressman had hinted to her: “I’m not going away.” Another resident attending the event was informed that Lamb had no “people” running his comms any longer.
It was still more than enough for those in attendance, many of whom had no questions for the panel and merely wanted their concerns to be heard — and shared by others in the crowd in the days following. Lamb spoke several times, but was more interested in listening; he stayed until the venue emptied, and spoke to The Independent after the last voters cleared out.
“These people want to be doing something, and we just have to channel it,” Lamb said in an interview.
“I think people who are elected, senators and representatives, should be at these things themselves. But if they’re not, I have a feeling these people are gonna keep going,” he said, while offering a semi-warning: “People should […] not lose sight of the fact that you know, if you create some energy in politics, and you get people organized and talking about their basic values, you don’t always know exactly what that’s going to produce, but the side with more energy tends to win elections.”
Nearing the three-month mark of his presidency, Donald Trump has overseen an unprecedented slash-and-burn of the federal government, while whole agencies being ripped apart and tens of thousands ousted from their jobs. Around the country, the effects are already obvious as Americans struggle to receive aid with longstanding federal programs like Social Security and universities drastically scale back Ph.D programs as research funding is cut. Meanwhile, the White House and Department of Homeland Security are pressing ahead with a full-scale assault on the First Amendment rights of noncitizens and seeking to accelerate deportation initiatives.
Lamb and others who listened to voters on Saturday said afterwards that many Democrats and even some independents and ex-Trump supporters were in many cases looking for a more concrete strategy of resistance than many in the party’s leadership were able to offer.
Mark Pinsley, controller for Lehigh County, was one of them.
“One of the things that I see on the stage, which I’m worried about, is – and you heard it from a couple of the women that were speaking – they’re looking for something that’s more aggressive,” Pinsley said.
The Democratic base, he argued, was looking for leaders ready to “punch [Republicans] in the face”. Pinsley added that neither Chuck Schumer in the Senate nor Hakeem Jeffries in the House were the leaders for the moment. He urged members of the party to ramp up the pressure on Elon Musk’s Tesla, and other brands that become linked with Trump’s.
“These are the kinds of things that I think the public is looking for,” Pinsley explained. “Look: we need the billionaires to be afraid of us. So what can we do? We start going after their money.”
One unifying complaint voiced by every resident who spoke to The Independent was the apparent abdication of the responsibility felt by Washington lawmakers to come and hear out their constituents. Thompson was the only one booed by name, given his Republican background and lack of public events.
But the feelings about Fetterman, Lamb’s former opponent, were just as evident. Voters and community organizers who agreed to speak about the senator did so through gritted teeth and strained expressions; one woman simply said he “wasn’t doing a lot”. The senator hasn’t hosted his own town hall-style event since Trump’s inauguration in January and his own heel-turn to support the Laken Riley Act, his embrace of a crackdown on college student protesters, and vote to break a filibuster on a Republican bill to fund the government.
The Independent reached out to the senator’s office for comment.
Fetterman’s only planned public event in recent weeks was a joint event with his state’s Republican US senator, Dave McCormick. The joint appearance at a Pittsburgh winery was aimed at promoting a book on mentorship written by McCormick and his wife; it has been postponed, following news that Indivisible and other groups would protest the venue. Demonstrations are set to go forward.
Lamb, recalling his House days, said the pressure was working — even if it was met with silence.
“GT [Glenn Thompson] and our senators aren’t here to answer our questions, the people with votes in Washington right now, but trust me, they hear it,” he told attendees on Saturday.
“I’ve been where they are. I’ve sat in the seats that they sit in. I’ve had congressional offices that people protest outside of from the left and from the right. I’ve had people ratio me on social media before, because of some vote that I took. More than once,” Lamb said. “It works. It influences them, and so you’re not going to see the fruits of your action today or next week or next month, but you will see [them].”
