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Congressional town halls all but vanish as August recess draws 11 sessions nationwide

8/11/2026

Only 11 lawmakers have town halls scheduled for the rest of August recess, according to LegiStorm's town hall tracker.

A format once synonymous with the congressional break has narrowed sharply, as a year of explosive constituent confrontations pushed many members away from open in-person forums.

The confrontations of 2025 Republicans absorbed most of the heat last year. Constituents vented over DOGE, federal layoffs and the Trump administration's spending cuts.

Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) was booed, heckled and repeatedly interrupted at a March 2025 town hall in Asheville as he defended Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE cuts.

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