U.S. Representative Emily Randall Town Hall Draws Large Turnout
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Representative Emily Randall speaks to the audience of her largest town hall yet at Blue Heron Middle School. [/caption]
News by Scott France
Emily Randall, first-term U.S. representative for the 6th Congressional district in Washington State, which includes all of Jefferson County, made her first appearance in Port Townsend since beginning her term. She spoke to an audience of approximately 700 people at the Blue Heron Middle School on March 26th. She said this gathering was the largest Town Hall that she has held since being in office.
Randall, the first Latina LGBTQ member of Congress, struck a mostly optimistic tone despite what has been a consistently frustrating experience interacting with her Republican counterparts. “It's difficult to come to agreement when the rules and facts are very fungible,” she said.
She contrasted the “debates” she would have in regular meetings with her Republican counterparts during her tenure as a Washington state senator with the current atmosphere in the US House of Representatives. During her state Senate term, she met weekly with some Republican senators to discuss sometimes contentious issues, but “we usually agreed on the facts.”
However, she said that debates in Congress are now “not rooted in the same facts.” Today, she said that the debate is guilded by “scripted talking points to go viral on the internet, the most extreme things you could say. It is more extreme than I could have imagined.”
She called out Elon Musk for using tools to deter Republicans from stepping out to work in a bipartisan way. Musk has been appointed by President Trump to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency,
Additionally, she said, a spate of executive orders aimed at such things as preventing federal employees from bargaining and unionizing, dismantling the Department of education, and “going after incredible museums and making attacks on our history, and the facts of our history have been confounding” .
Randall said that she has counted 138 challenges to executive orders, about 40 of which have resulted in positive injunctions for temporary restraining orders in the courts.
“But we also have to do the work in our communities. We have to reach out to those who are not engaged, those who are not paying attention to politics, it's time to start,” she said. “If you think about people you went to grade school with and they live in other districts and are not paying attention, encourage them to call their representatives.”
She implored all citizens to stand up to defend the Constitution and our democracy. “We have to talk to our neighbors, and get back to some old-fashioned organizing in order to fight back,” she said. “Every time we have won a fight for civil rights, it has not been in the halls of Congress but in our communities and our streets.”
She also called upon Republicans to stand up to dire threats to democracy that the executive branch is posing. She said that “Republican patriots need to stand up and be empowered to do their constitutional duty.”
Randall said that President Trump is withholding funds from vital programs in education and healthcare “as a vindictive tool against people who don't agree with him.”
Randall's self-professed optimistic personality showed through during most of her presentation, despite the deep and consistent challenges that she and the entire Congressional Democratic caucus face every day. She said that there are many deeply knowledgeable and thoughtful people in Congress, including Republicans, whom she hopes will come together to make good things happen. “Being open to learning and working alongside each other represents the best of democracy,” she said.
“I'm looking forward to working alongside you,” she said to an appreciative audience.
