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PORTLAND, Maine — Regardless of their party affiliation, every Maine politician serving in Washington, D.C., is currently facing criticism as constituents continue to demand to hear from their respective members of Congress from Maine. Town halls are being held, whether the politicians agree to attend or not.
Two organizations held separate town halls on Wednesday, welcoming Maine constituents to share their concerns about the impacts of President Donald Trump’s administration’s changes to federal policies and their frustrations regarding the apparent struggles to communicate with Maine’s members of Congress.
Democratic Representative Chellie Pingree and Democratic Representative Jared Golden represent Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican Senator Susan Collins and Independent Senator Angus King represent Maine in the U.S. Senate.
The town hall held by the grassroots organization Blue Anchor Project in Brunswick requested Representative Chellie Pingree’s attendance. The organization’s chairman, Liam Kent, said they plan to hold town halls that invite all four of Maine’s U.S. Congress delegation.
“We held an event for Jared Golden this past weekend,” Kent said. “He declined to attend, but we saved him a chair.”
Pingree was set to attend another virtual meeting organized by the Lincoln County Democratic Committee (LCDC), which coincided with the meeting hosted by the Blue Anchor Project.
LCDC’s virtual meeting was organized exclusively for the group’s special members, allowing them to discuss Pingree’s recent efforts to advocate for Mainers and counter Trump’s agenda.
Questions also had to be submitted to LCDC ahead of time.
Kent said that appearing at a meeting with so many limitations and that it is not widely available to the public is not a considerable way to address concerns.
He added that virtual meetings, in general, are ineffective. Kent said that although he appreciates Pingree’s efforts in Congress, he wants her to meet constituents where they are—in person.
In Kent’s eyes, Maine members of Congress are either hiding behind screens hosting virtual meetings or not hosting town halls at all, he said.
“I respect Chellie Pingree, but why is she hiding behind a screen? Why is she hiding behind a phone call?” Kent said. ” You have Tim Walz, you have Bernie Sanders, you have Elizabeth Warren. All these elected officials who are having these in-person town halls and getting thousands of people to show up. That’s the big question that we have to ask our elected officials. What are they afraid of? Police officers, firefighters, teachers, you have LGBTQ folks, people of color. They don’t get that luxury.”
Ken said many constituents have told him that they feel unheard from Maine’s politicians.
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree took time Wednesday to interview with NEWS CENTER Maine.
She first started by saying she hears people and that she’s listening.
“People have such high levels of frustration, and I think they do want to see us, they want to talk to us, they want to speak with us,” Pingree said.
She said that she recognizes the limitations of LCDC’s virtual meeting, but she explained that her office did not organize the meeting. She said she meets routinely with various organizations for meetings, and those organizations are responsible for setting their own meeting guidelines.
But there is some hope for those like Kent who are asking Pingree to hold a town hall. Pingree said that she’s currently planning an in-person meeting in the coming months, where all are welcome, expressing that she feels it’s important to be accessible.
“I work for the people of Maine, and I think we all have to be as available and representative as we possibly can be,” Pingree said. “We don’t want anyone to feel that they can’t get access to us. They can contact our office, we’ll set up a meeting, and we’ll try to be as responsive as we possibly can.”
Out of all four of Maine’s Congress members, Sen. Susan Collins has recently faced the most criticism.
The grassroot organization Indivisible Cumberland County held a town hall in Gorham asking Collins to attend.
The organization’s steering committee member, Harry Brown, stated that approximately 500 people had registered to attend the town hall.
According to Brown, people fill out a form when they register for an event. On the form, there was a section that allowed attendees to submit specific questions that they had for Collins.
The extensive list of questions acknowledges personal testimonies in which people share various ways they have been negatively impacted by new policies introduced by the Trump administration.
Some of the concerns shared in the document highlight social services and education funding that are being gutted, teachers and school psychologists who say they’re seeing growing fears and instability among students, cuts to Medicare and social security, concerns about increased targeting of individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+ and the list goes on.
To see the full list of concerns, click here.
Brown said attendees are specifically asking, “Where is Susan Collins?” explaining that he has spoken to many people, some of whom have supported Collins, who report being unable to contact her and are feeling unheard.
Brown stated that he and members of the organization had reached out to Collins on numerous occasions to request her presence so she could listen to constituents and address their concerns.
“The silence has been deafening, is my answer. We delivered a letter in person to her office last week. We also submitted online to her event request portal,” Brown said.
He explained that despite multiple requests for Collins to attend the town hall, they never heard back.
NEWS CENTER Maine asked Brown whether he had considered the fact that Republican members of Congress have faced conflict when attending town halls recently. There has been so much tension that the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee advised lawmakers against holding in-person town halls.
Brown said that he does not see that as an excuse for Collins or any other politician to disregard constituents.
He added that he believes the organization went to great lengths to ensure that the town hall would be a civil, controlled, and guided conversation that would promote healthy dialogue. He added that former U.S. Congress Democratic Representative Tom Allen moderated the town hall.
Collins previously shared in an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine last week that the Senate has been receiving as many as 1,600 calls per minute every day, stating that the switchboard is overloaded.
“I think the fact that there are so many calls going in demands a response at some point,” Brown said.
NEWS CENTER Maine requested an interview with Collins early Wednesday morning, explaining that people who have supported the senator are going so far as to share their concerns with the news directly.
NEWS CENTER Maine has received many emails from constituents who are questioning Collins’s decisions on the Senate floor.
Collins’ press secretary, Blake Kernan, declined to interview. She directed NEWS CENTER Maine to a recording of Collins sharing her remarks on the Senate floor, where the senator explained her recent vote for a federal spending bill that made massive cuts to Medicare, Social Security, and other non-defense spending.
Although Collins’ office declined to interview, NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to Kernan again, asking if they were aware of the town hall being held by the Indivisible Cumberland County organization.
Kernan said that they believe the organization is determined to unseat Sen. Collins. Kernan was unable to provide a definite answer on whether Collins’ office was aware of the town hall or not. Kernan stated that even if they were aware, they likely would not have made the senator available to speak with NEWS CENTER Maine due to previous disagreements regarding a separate story.
Sen. Angus King has been extremely active on the Senate floor, widely refuting various changes that President Donald Trump has recently made.
The senator took to social media platform X last week, saying that his phone lines are open. However, after Sen. Collins and Rep. Jared Golden, along with Sen. King, all voted last week to approve a federal spending bill that cuts $13 billion in non-defense spending, including Medicare and Social Security, some constituents who said they voted for King and Collins are now losing faith.
Kathy Davis is 73 years old and fully depends on Social Security. She said she does not understand the decisions that both Collins and King have made recently.
“I have a feeling that they’re caving to political pressure, and that’s not what we elected them for. You represent us. We are the people that you’re supposed to take care of and represent. Not your political friends,” Davis said. “I’m very surprised with some of the way that they voted because I thought they were stronger than that. I’ve had a lot of confidence with them in the past, but this one is starting to get shaky. And I’m not feeling as confident in them as I used to.”
King and Collins have been very vocal about their criticisms of the continued resolution spending bill.
Senator King was not available for an interview on Wednesday, but his press secretary, Matthew Felling, directed us to a video in which King explained his reasoning for voting to approve the federal spending bill.
King described the bill as a “no good, bad continuing resolution.” He said that he does not support the bill at all, but he explained that he was put in a position where he had to choose between two ‘terrible options.’ If the bill did not pass, the government would have shut down.
“The problem is that with a shutdown, the president and Elon Musk and the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) have almost unfettered discretion about what happens, who’s essential, who’s not essential. What agencies get to work, which ones don’t,” King said. “In my view and in the view of many of my colleagues, this is a significantly greater danger to the country than the continuing resolution with all of its faults. It’s not just a question of vote no and fight and defeat the Republicans.”
To see King’s full video explaining why he supported the bill, click here.
Sen. Collins has stated repeatedly that she voted in favor of the bill to avert a government shutdown, emphasizing that she believes it’s unfair for federal workers and Americans not to receive their pay due to a shutdown.
“Government shutdowns are inherently a failure to govern effectively,” Collins said.
She also criticized the last session’s Democratic Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, claiming that he refused to bring bills to the floor that she felt would have prevented Congress members from voting for a bad spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
To see Collins’ full video explaining why he supported the bill, click here.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to Rep. Golden’s office regarding concerns about his failure to hold town halls, but we did not receive a response. Golden has been known for not making public appearances. Criticisms of Golden were minor and mostly focused on his lack of accessibility to constituents in public settings.
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