\n<\/p>\n
Even as most congressional Republicans are avoiding their constituents, one has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to engaging with voters in the flesh: 61-year-old Mark Alford of Missouri held not one but 15 public events across his district this week, including five town halls. The second-term lawmaker is not an otherwise noteworthy member of Congress. He represents a safe Republican district, and has voted along party lines 89 percent of the time, according to Heritage Action. But in a moment when so few Republicans are making an effort to hear from the people who sent them to Congress, Alford has set himself apart. His forums, four of which I attended this week, offer a useful window into voters\u2019 opinions of the current administration, and a preview of the biggest fights to come in 2026.<\/p>\n
Alford, whose district spans 24 counties in west-central Missouri, is a former TV-news anchor with a square jaw and gray hair that make him resemble a slightly younger version of Pat Sajak. At each of his recent public events, which were announced weeks ago and were open to the press, Alford forwent the customary politician\u2019s podium. Instead he perched on a stool to avoid the appearance, he told me, of \u201clording\u201d over voters. In an interview, Alford said that he sees these public events as vital to the job. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re elected every two years\u2014to be back in the district to listen to people,\u201d he said. \u201cI may not win them over, but I\u2019ll be able to sleep at night knowing that I at least listened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since March, when Republican leaders in Congress advised their members against holding town halls, most GOP lawmakers have been AWOL during each congressional recess\u2014physically in their districts, maybe, but mostly inaccessible. A handful of lawmakers have flouted this new advice by holding one or two stand-alone town halls, while others have only dared to host virtual events with prescreened questions.<\/p>\n
Alford declined to speculate about why so many of his Republican colleagues haven\u2019t met with their constituents during the August recess. But the answer is probably that they don\u2019t see much upside in being publicly heckled\u2014which Alford was, often. Most of the attendees who showed up to the coffee shops and community centers where Alford spoke this week were not fans of his; several used the crowd mic to call the president a \u201cdictator\u201d and Alford his lackey. At Southwest Baptist University, in Bolivar, Missouri, a farmer named Fred Higginbotham asked the congressman repeatedly when he would take his \u201chead out of Trump\u2019s ass.\u201d (At this, two older women near me gasped.) Alford mostly ignored these insults, although at one point, he distanced himself from the president: \u201cI\u2019m not the best of friends with Trump,\u201d he told Higginbotham. \u201cI met him maybe five or six times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photograph by Arin Yoon for The Atlantic<\/p>\n
A town hall hosted by Mark Alford in Lebanon, Missouri, on August 26<\/p>\n
Photograph by Arin Yoon for The Atlantic<\/p>\n
The town hall in Lebanon<\/p>\n
Mostly, however, Alford\u2019s events were civil, if tense. Some questioners focused on local issues, such as how Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs have affected Missouri farmers. Several attendees asked Alford about Trump\u2019s deployment of federal agents and the National Guard in Washington, D.C. In the city of Lebanon, a combat veteran named Josh asked whether Alford was prepared to stop the president from sending troops into Missouri. In St. Robert, a high-school government teacher asked Alford \u201cwhat\u2019s so conservative\u201d about loosing troops on the U.S. capital. (Alford\u2019s response was to suggest that cities should be grateful for the extra help. When Kansas City co-hosts the men\u2019s World Cup in 2026, would Missourians not hope to see the National Guard helping out?)<\/p>\n
A topic that rarely came up was Jeffrey Epstein. I\u2019d expected more voters to ask Alford about the Justice Department investigation into the financier and sex offender. Few did. But in Bolivar, Don Bass, a Republican and a retired police officer, told me before Alford took the stage that he wasn\u2019t happy to hear the president dismiss the people advocating for the Epstein files\u2019 release. \u201cI voted for him three times, and he calls me a \u2018troublemaker!\u2019\u201d Bass said. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
As has become clear in other GOP town halls and in recent polling, the issue that had Alford\u2019s constituents particularly frustrated was the new Republican tax-cut-and-spending package\u2014Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Among other provisions, the legislation makes permanent the president\u2019s 2017 tax cuts, eliminates $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other public-health programs, and reduces food assistance by $186 billion. Independent estimates suggest that millions of Americans, including children, will lose health-care coverage or food-assistance benefits in the next few years. At the Bolivar event, a woman named Samantha asked whether Alford had considered this. \u201cMy question to you is, how do we fix it?\u201d The next day, in St. Robert, a constituent named Allison told Alford that she works with disabled children who rely on Medicaid and SNAP. \u201cI\u2019m looking at these kids that I treat, and I\u2019m like, Who\u2019s going to lose their food stamps? Who might lose their Medicaid?<\/em>\u201d she said, her voice wavering. \u201cIt seems like we didn\u2019t even need to make those Medicaid or food-stamps cuts if we had just not extended that tax cut to the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n Photograph by Arin Yoon for The Atlantic<\/p>\n Alford answers questions at the town hall in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Photograph by Arin Yoon for The Atlantic<\/p>\n A constituent speaks with Alford at a town hall in St. Robert, Missouri, on August 26.<\/p>\n To each questioner, Alford\u2019s response was the same: There was waste in the Medicaid and SNAP systems, and Republicans were eliminating it. Because Americans with dependents will continue to receive coverage under the bill\u2019s requirements, no children will go without health care or food, he promised, and he said that those suggesting otherwise are promoting \u201cmisinformation.\u201d (Economists and health-care experts have argued that, despite children being covered on paper, the bill\u2019s new work requirements and administrative hurdles will likely cause many to fall through the cracks.) Alford\u2019s team has set up a hotline for constituents to call if they are unduly removed from the system. \u201cIf there is a child kicked off Medicaid or SNAP, I\u2019m going to fight for them,\u201d he said. He also acknowledged the \u201ctough times ahead\u201d for rural hospitals, but he pointed to the bill\u2019s $50 billion fund for rural health care.<\/p>\n Similar back-and-forths have played out at Republican events this spring and summer, including at a viral town hall held by Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska, and another hosted by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, whose helpful response to concerns about cuts to Medicaid was: \u201cWell, we all are going to die.\u201d More than a month after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act\u2019s passage, more people disapprove of it than approve, according to the Pew Research Center, and the president this week suggested a rebrand. \u201cI\u2019m not going to use the term \u2018great big beautiful,\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cThat was good for getting it approved, but it\u2019s not good for explaining to people what it\u2019s all about.\u201d Vice President J. D. Vance has been on tour to reframe the bill as a win for the working class. Alford is careful, too. When he talks about the bill, he refers to it as \u201cHR 1.\u201d I asked him whether this is a tacit acknowledgment that he sees the legislation as a political vulnerability. Alford said no. \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill\u201d is \u201ca great name,\u201d he said, but \u201cwhy would I use something that is going to trigger\u201d people?<\/p>\n Photograph by Arin Yoon for The Atlantic<\/p>\n Alford speaks with constituents at Bean Depot in Laurie, Missouri, on August 27.<\/p>\n Alford\u2019s town halls are not exactly changing minds; the people I spoke with seemed to arrive and leave with the same feelings about their congressman and president that they entered with. At the St. Robert Community Center, Dawn, a retiree in a tie-dyed T-shirt who declined to share her last name, told me that she\u2019d voted for Trump in 2016, but had changed her mind in the years since. She wasn\u2019t happy about the 2017 tax cuts, she told me, and now she worries about Trump\u2019s \u201cblatant, wanton desire to just take over.\u201d Dawn appreciated Alford\u2019s willingness to listen, she said. \u201cBut will I vote for him? No.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Alford managed to hold a week\u2019s worth of public events without screening questions or attendees. He de-escalated conflicts, and responded to substantive criticism from his constituents. \u201cI\u2019m not necessarily after their vote in the town-hall tours,\u201d he told me. \u201cI\u2019m after their respect.\u201d On this modest goal, Alford appears to have found at least some success. His Republican colleagues don\u2019t seem interested in achieving the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even as most congressional Republicans are avoiding their constituents, one has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to engaging with voters in the flesh: 61-year-old Mark Alford of Missouri held not one but 15 public events across his district this week, including five town halls. The second-term lawmaker is not an otherwise noteworthy member of Congress. 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