Town Hall Turbulence: GOP Congressmen Learn The Truth About DOGE and Elon Musk

Everything that happens these next 45 months plants the seed for the 2028 election.

That should go without saying but it bears repeating. With Donald Trump being constitutionally barred from running for a third term, Republicans will have to bring forth a nominee who must separate himself from Trump personally while embracing Trump politically. Without their cult leader on the ticket, 77 million Republicans will need to find a way to vote for Trump's replacement, whoever that may be. But more than that, Republican elected officials will also be on the ballot both in 2026 and 2028. And if this past week is any indication, they will have their work cut out for them. 

With the GOP-controlled House taking some well-deserved time off last week (/sarcasm), several House members returned to their home districts to host town halls to hear directly from their constituents. For the last four years, these town halls have gone swimmingly. Being in the minority, GOP House and Senate members have bemoaned the power-hungry Democrats and the tyranny that they unleashed upon the country. The Party of Perpetual Grievance did what it does best: they told their constituents what was wrong and why Democrats were to blame. Being in the minority for the first two years of the Biden presidency, they could say how they were "fighting" but nothing could be done. This absolved them from being held accountable by their constituents who seemingly agreed that there was nothing good was possible with Joe Biden and those pesky Democrats in charge. 

But that all changed on January 20th. Now, Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, and the GOP's constituents are all of a sudden interested in accountability. Knowing that they voted for Republicans to enact a wide range of Trump-backed campaign promises, GOP voters were expecting policies hurting those that Trump and Vance promised on the campaign trail. Illegal immigrants? Gone. DEI? Gone. Partisan federal government employees? Gone. With Trump at the helm for a second time, there was the expectation that all of these campaign promises would be up and running within the first month. 

Imagine Republicans' surprise this past week when their constituents weren't so happy with all that has transpired since the inauguration. 

Let's start in Georgia's 7th congressional district where Republican congressman Rich McCormick had a town hall event in Roswell. McCormick won re-election in 2024 by 30 points and likely expected to waltz into the event taking a few questions and then saunter away. However, his constituents had other ideas and pushed him hard on the ongoing purge of federal employees by a non-elected Elon Musk. A visibly flustered McCormick tried deflecting the questions only to have constituents continue holding his feet to the fire in the type of GOP town hall we haven't seen since the Tea Party days and the anger displayed from what they saw as runaway government spending. Attendees simply weren't having McCormick's boilerplate responses about the need to reign in federal government spending at a time when 1,300 Atlanta-based CDC federal employees were at risk of losing their jobs, many of whom were in the room that evening. 

Meanwhile, 900 miles north Congressman Glenn Grothman held a town hall event of his own in the town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Grothman, the incumbent congressman from an R+10 district, won re-election by 22 points in 2024. But like McCormick, Grothman also faced a hostile crowd of constituents, especially those deeply angry about Elon Musk and the role that DOGE was playing in the dismantling of the federal government. Attendees also shared concerns about Donald Trump's increased use of executive orders, a practice that many in attendance felt was sloppy without having thought through the implications of his orders. Like those in Roswell, Oshkosk Republicans left the town hall deeply unsatisfied with the responses of the congressman they overwhelmingly elected. 

Heading a mere 55 miles southeast in West Bend, Republican Congressman Scott Fitzgerald was also pelted with hard-hitting questions about DOGE and its actions. Fitzgerald won re-election by 30 points in 2024 but hardly anticipated the rage and fury directed at him by both Republicans and Democrats at his in-district town hall. While Fitzgerald tried to reassure the crowd that DOGE would eventually come under regulation, that vague promise did not sit well with those who were already being impacted by Musk's draconian cuts. Like those who attended other town halls, attendees at Fitzgerald's event likewise left angry and disappointed that their GOP congressman seemed unable and unwilling to act on their behalf. 

It's early. 

But we are already seeing how Trump's and Musk's power grab is resonating with voters, including those in traditional Republican strongholds. Trump currently boasts the worst first-term approval rating since 1953. Musk's role in the government is only supported by 34% of Americans. At a time when presidents are supposed to have a grace period of 100 days, Trump and Musk have blown through what little goodwill they had to start with by going straight for the gut in trying to enact their deeply unpopular Project 2025 agenda. The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party has had no shortage of tales of now-unemployed Trump voters who assumed that Trump would hurt the brown people and not them. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has gone right in and terminated tens of thousands of federal workers in the exact same type of purge he implemented when he took over Twitter. Unbeknownst to the 77 million Trump voters, they were, and have always been, expendable. 

To be honest, I don't believe the dam will ever fully break when it comes to Trump voters. But if enough stay home in 2026 and 2028 then we can make the type of gains we need to take back control. Trump and the GOP own everything these next two years. They cannot blame DOGE and its actions on Joe Biden (although surely they will try). What we're seeing in these overwhelming GOP districts will unquestionably resonate in swing and purple House districts next year. If there is palpable anger in safe, conservative House districts we can only imagine the reaction in swing districts where just a few thousand voters brought a Republican to Congress instead of a Democrat. The more Elon Musk and DOGE continue their purge, the more GOP voters will realize that Trump never actually intended to help them. At a time in our history when turnout is key, anything that depresses Republican turnout can only be seen as a good thing. 

And nothing has been more depressing this first month to GOP voters than Elon Musk and his outsized role in the Trump Administration.