BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The questions lobbed at freshman Democratic Rep. Kelly Morrison during a packed down hall Thursday night were meaty.
“What is the plan to enforce court rulings against Trump and Musk in the event that they disregard court orders?”
“If Trump ends Social Security, we will be unable to pay our mortgage. We will become homeless at age 70. What can or should we do?”
“How will Democrats rehabilitate their standing as the only hope to save the country?” followed by: “Why does Chuck Schumer still have a job?”
Morrison, who represents a liberal-leaning district in the Minneapolis suburbs, echoed back outrage at the administration and sympathy with the queries, which were written on paper and passed to the stage for a moderator to read.
But ultimately, she admitted she has few cards to play in a federal government dominated by Republicans in the House, Senate and White House.
“I had big plans that are on hold,” Morrison said.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to transform the federal government at a breakneck pace have upturned norms and tested legal limits. The impacts are rippling across the country and lawmakers are hearing about it.
During the week-long break from Congress to visit their districts, Democrats like Morrison faced voters demanding answers on what the party is doing to stand up to a president who is pushing the bounds of executive power, especially after several Democratic senators joined with Republicans to advance a GOP-led government funding extension and avoid a shutdown.
And the few Republicans who have opted to hold town halls after their leadership advised against it have been met with questions about the speed and scope of the cuts, even if their voters are generally supportive of the president’s agenda.
The party has dismissed the raucous town halls in conservative districts as the work of liberal activist groups, which have encouraged people to flood public forums in an attempt to highlight frustrations with the administration. But multiple Republican lawmakers who spoke with USA TODAY said they are hearing concerns from constituents and are communicating them to the administration.
“You get into Social Security offices closing, you get into the federal employees that are dispersed out through the state – we’re hearing of some concerns. Some are coming from employees that are affected, some are coming from the community. Those ones we have to pay attention to,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., one of the most vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection in 2026.
“That’s why I’m glad that the president has said it’s time to move into a surgeon’s versus a lumberjack’s approach to DOGE. I think that was good advice from the president.”
In Trump’s first 60 days in office, the administration has gutted agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development, attempted to withhold congressionally-appropriated funding, downsized agencies like the Department of Education, sought to close dozens of Social Security offices, and laid off tens of thousands of federal employees.
Trump has argued that the administration is seeking to root out “waste, fraud and abuse” from a bloated federal government, and said he is fighting an “administrative state” staffed by “unelected bureaucrats” disloyal to Trump and to the American people. In a statement to USA TODAY on the pushback at town halls, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump “will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable.”
Democratic voters, shocked by the rapid changes and without their party in power in Washington, are begging their lawmakers to do something. After Democrats held protest signs and walked out of Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this month, their supporters complained that the effort was performative and fell flat.
The volume of those complaints ratcheted up significantly after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a group of senate Democrats to help Republicans pass a partisan funding extension, arguing the consequences of a shutdown would be much worse than the bill itself, which gives the administration more leeway over spending decisions.
The full force of their voters’ discontent bubbled up at town halls when Democrats returned to their districts for a weeklong recess.
Attendees to a town hall in Golden, Colorado shouted for a full minute at Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who faced questions on why he voted to confirm several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, such as Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
A woman at a town hall in Maryland screamed at Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, who was explaining Democrats’ constraints until the 2026 midterm elections: “You are talking about voting, the house is on fire!”
The approximately 2,000-person crowd in suburban Minnesota Thursday night was decidedly more reserved. The event opened with a warning from the moderator that town halls elsewhere had “gotten out of hand” and a request to “be respectful.”
Still, multiple people attending Morrison’s town hall told USA TODAY they showed up in search of hope and an indication that Democrats are fighting.
“I’m a little disappointed” with Democrats’ response to the first months of the Trump administration, said Alisha O’Shaughnessy of Brooklyn Park, 43. “I feel the lack of action is scary.”
“None of us know what to do, and I know that they’re struggling with it,” said Russ Borchardt, 71, a U.S. Army veteran who typically voted for Republicans until Trump first ran for office in 2016. “But somehow, we need more. We need more out of the party.”
His wife Theresa Borchardt, 68, added: “We just hope that the Democrats can coalesce and do something. ‘Let’s let the dumpster fire burn out and see what happens’ is not an effective strategy.”
The vast majority of Republican lawmakers have cheered on the changes to the federal government spearheaded by Trump’s advisor, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
But during their first break from Congress in February, their town halls were overrun with angry constituents livid at the changes. Republican leadership has accused Democratic groups of paying protesters to create chaos at the events. While Democratic groups have promoted the Republican events, there is no evidence attendees are being paid.
The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which helps Republicans win seats in the House of Representatives, advised members to hold virtual town halls instead to avoid more viral confrontations. However, a few Republicans still held public forums over the last week.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., was booed and hissed at during a town hall in Asheville, and one man was escorted out of the room for yelling at the congressman. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was shouted down as he defended the changes as making progress in reducing spending. And Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., heard concerns about Musk the “unelected billionaire” making decisions, even from constituents who otherwise support the president’s agenda.
Nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers told USA TODAY that they’ve heard from plenty of constituents who applaud the effort to pare down federal government costs. But they also said they’re watching closely to make sure the changes don’t cut too close to the bone – and are flagging Musk’s team when that happens.
Members cited multiple federal services and employees they’re looking out for in their districts, from military bases and border patrol outposts to passport processing centers, Social Security offices, forest service agents, and Veterans Affairs clinics.
“The art is going to be to make sure you right-size,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont. “So a right-size is, from a former (Navy) SEAL perspective: Make sure the front line is fine.”
As Republicans shy away from in-person town halls, Democrats are hosting their own events in GOP-held parts of the country to point the finger at Trump and his party.
Former 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a town hall-style event on Tuesday in GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s district, a battleground seat in western Wisconsin.
It came after other liberal groups organized their own town halls and invited Van Orden to join, or attempted to join other group’s meetings with the congressman.
On Capitol Hill last week, Van Orden told USA TODAY he’s met with DOGE staff to ensure “every single tax dollar that’s allocated or appropriated for the Veterans Affairs administration goes to the veteran.”
He also argued that the people turning up to Republican town halls across the country are “agitators” disrupting constituents’ ability to speak to their lawmakers.
“That’s incredibly disrespectful and I’m not going to allow that to take place,” he said, explaining why he would instead hold virtual town halls.
Cyndi Greening, 68, is a retired professor who said she decided to start a chapter of the progressive activist group Indivisible in western Wisconsin last fall shortly before the presidential election. After a month of mourning the results, she said, “I got up and said, I gotta do something.”
Now the group hosts a weekly protest with other Democratic groups in downtown Eau Claire, the largest city in Van Orden’s district. On Wednesday, people showed up wrapped up in mittens and hats as the snow fell, holding homemade signs: “DOGE smells dodgy” or “Dump Trump and his Musk-rat.”
The Chippewa Valley Indivisible group started with 28 people in January and now has more than 500 members, Greening said.
“People were counting on the guardrails. They were counting on the courts, they were counting on our congressional representatives to stand up. The checks and balances,” she said. “They’re letting us down horribly.”
Twelve miles north, Caroline Haas, 72, waited in her car outside the Veterans Affairs clinic in Chippewa Falls while her husband, Gale Haas, was seeing the doctor inside.
Gale served in the U.S. Air Force in Thailand during the Vietnam War, Caroline Haas said, and he’s had care from the V.A. for multiple medical issues over decades since leaving the service.
“He’s always had good care” through the VA clinic, she said, adding that the clinic is more important than ever because multiple hospitals in the area have closed in recent years. “That kind of put this area in a crisis for medical.”
But asked what she thinks about the changes the administration has made, she added that she’s open to making sure the government works better, especially so it doesn’t “go broke” by the time her kids and grandkids might need support.
“Maybe some of this needs to come out, how some of the money’s been spent,” she said.
