Hundreds attend town hall sans Barrett

Protesters frustrated with inability to express concerns directly to their congressman

(This story has been updated. An earlier version misidentified Curtis Hamilton as an organizer of the town hall meeting.)

SATURDAY, March 22 — Constituents of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett held a town hall today without the Charlotte Republican.

His chair stayed empty.

About 240 people attended the two-hour event at Wilson Hall’s auditorium on Michigan State University’s campus. It was organized by Indivisible Michigan 7 District, a 7^th Congressional District branch of the national progressive political organization Indivisible,

Curtis Hamilton was among a group that presented Barrett’s office staff yesterday with a petition they said had 1,800 signatures calling on the Charlotte Republican to attend a town hall in person.  Outside, about 200 people protested.

Organizers of today’s event said Barrett was invited to attend but did not respond.

Another is scheduled in Lansing for April 22 sponsored by several organizations. Barrett received an invitation to that one today, Hamilton said.

While a few constituents were allowed into the office yesterday to speak with Barrett’s staff, they received no answer to the invitation. Barrett was not present.

Barrett held a telephone town hall last week, but many constituents never received the number. Barrett’s spokesperson said there had been a glitch.

Barrett is one of many Republican representatives who avoided in-person meetings after angry voters flooded town halls during the first congressional recess. House Speaker Mike Johnson has encouraged Republican representatives not to hold in-person town halls.

David Hopkinson, an Indivisible Michigan 7 organizer, said he believed the group “could do it responsibly.”

“I don’t think we have to have people yelling at them,” he said.

Hopkinson said he believed Barrett was failing to perform his job by allowing billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to affect federal funding.

“Congress has a role in our form of government, and they’re deciding, ‘Yeah, we’re just not going to do it, we’re going to let Trump do whatever he wants,” Hopkinson said.

Hamilton said after the meeting that the group had met with Ron Kendall, Barrett’s district director.

“He’s a good listener, and he does understand our points,” Hamilton said. “But as far as him speaking for the representative, he will always not do that.”

Hamilton said he would follow up with the office to urge Barrett to attend the meeting.

Hamilton also noted that given Barrett’s slim victory last November, he would be wise to acknowledge constituents’ concerns. Barrett received 50.3% of the vote, beating Democratic candidate Curtis Hertel by under 17,000 votes in the decidedly purple district. Barrett lost in 2023 to Democrat Elissa Slotkin, whom voters elected to the Senate last fall.

While Hamilton and others spoke with Barrett’s staff, protesters chanted outside the office, urging Barrett’s staff to “save our vets.”

One protester, a Vietnam veteran named Rip Augustine, said he was upset by the removal of Charles Rogers from the Defense Department website.

Rogers, a Black man and Medal of Honor recipient, was a lieutenant colonel when he rallied his men in defense of an army base in 1968 and led his battalion despite multiple severe injuries. He was scrubbed from the website as part of a purge of material promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, though the pictures were returned following backlash.

“Musk and those punks put a ‘DEI’ in front of his name and took it down,” Augustine said. “It makes me furious to see this disrespect of Vietnam’s veterans.”

Augustine said he was glad to see the websites restored but demanded an apology.

Another Vietnam veteran, Jack Devine, said he was concerned Musk’s budget cuts were too severe.

“It’s a pretend department,” he said. “It’s actually a wrecking crew. They’re just going in and tearing things up with no rhyme or reason. They don’t care about the consequences.”

Nichole Keway Biber, who works with Clean Water Action, an environmental advocacy group, said she was protesting cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We’re the ones who are drinking the consequences” of environmental deregulation, she said.

Many expressed a hope that Barrett would be understanding — if they could get him to the table.

“We feel that he is not listening and he is going through filters,” Hamilton said. “We just want to talk to him unfiltered.”