With the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in recess this week, Democrats are eager to hear from Arizonans outraged by sweeping cuts made by President Donald Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk.
Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego held a Monday morning town hall focused on possible cuts to Medicaid – a prospect Republicans deny will occur, but budget analysts warn are a necessity to achieve large-scale reductions in federal spending required by a GOP-backed federal spending bill adopted last week.
“They think that they can lie to you and say, ‘Oh, we’re not cutting Medicaid, we’re cutting waste, fraud and abuse,’” Gallego said at the town hall. “Don’t fall for that, especially in Arizona.”
Gallego is hosting two more “Save Medicaid” town halls on Tuesday in Douglas and Sierra Vista.
Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari will host her own town hall Tuesday alongside Arizonans concerned about the impact of GOP cuts on veterans, retirees and working families.
Even out-of-state Democrats are getting in on the action in Arizona. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two of the leading faces of the progressive movement, travel to Phoenix on Thursday evening and Tucson on Saturday as part of the “fighting oligarchy” tour – a Sanders-led effort to rally Americans to resist the second Trump administration.
These and other events are also intended to highlight Republicans’ wariness to hold their own events to engage with constituents. House Speaker Mike Johnson has encouraged Republicans to skip town halls after protestors overwhelmed GOP lawmakers at recent public events.
Republicans from Arizona appear to have heeded his advice.
Rep. David Schweikert, for example, is scheduled to speak at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. The Republican representing Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District will headline a forum on fiscal responsibility, emceed by conservative radio host Mike Broomhead of KTAR.
It’s a friendly venue and topic for Schweikert, who’s long branded himself as a fiscal hawk.
The congressman has no other events advertised during the recess on his website, and a spokesperson for Schweikert did not respond to a request for comment on any other public events he might hold this week.
Elsewhere in Arizona, the Democratic Party and left-leaning organizations are hosting their own town hall-style events in competitive congressional districts represented by Republicans with no apparent plans to hold their own.
Northern Arizona chapters of Indivisible, a nationwide group of progressive advocates, announced they’ll host a town hall in Cottonwood, complete with what they say will likely be an empty chair for Rep. Eli Crane. The representative from Arizona 2nd Congressional District, they note, has scheduled no town halls this week.
The Democratic National Committee announced its own plans to hold a “people’s town hall” in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District to “engage voters who have been left behind by Donald Trump and Republicans’ dangerous agenda.”
The southern Arizona district, represented by Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, is one of several GOP-held districts nationwide that the DNC considers “vulnerable” in the upcoming 2026 election.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct that Gallego is holding the town halls in Douglas and Sierra vista on his own.
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