February 28, 2025 10:51 AM UTC

It's 2017 All Over Again As Rep. Jason Crow Hosts Massive Town Hall

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Cassandra Ballard reports for the Aurora Sentinel, last night Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora hosted an in-person town hall that by all accounts greatly exceeded turnout expectations, with an estimated 1,500 showing up to express their dismay and demand action after Trump 2.0’s calamitous first month back in office:

At the biggest town-hall meeting in his congressional tenure, Rep. Jason Crow told a packed high-school auditorium that the nation is at a “crossroads.”

The Aurora Democrat said he doesn’t “pull his punches,” but at a time of chaos spilling out of the Trump White House, he said he chooses bipartisanship as both an offense and defensive tactic.

“I believe that the antidote to those who want to tear and destroy is to build,” Crow said…

Crow’s words were met Thursday night with thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the nearly 1,500 people attending the meeting at Hinkley High School.

Colorado Public Radio:

About 1,400 people packed into the main auditorium, with a few hundred more watching from a screen in an auxiliary room. Several audience members pushed Crow on the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, saying they were skeptical of the cuts and the vilification of government workers.

“I don’t believe that an unelected unaccountable billionaire who didn’t come before Congress to be accountable should have a right to your information, a right to our payment systems, to be hiring these young, unclear people that used to work for him to access our classified systems,” Crow said, bringing a few people to their feet.

“Lock him up!” the audience chanted. “Shut it down!”

Last night’s packed town hall hosted by Rep. Crow drew reminiscent comparisons to the backlash against Donald Trump’s first administration that developed soon after he took office in January of 2017–and continued to build until the midterm elections the following year that resulted in sweeping losses for Republicans at all levels and Democrats retaking the U.S. House with a gain of 40 seats. Although Trump took office a second time with better overall poll numbers than he enjoyed at any point during his first term, that support is now rapidly eroding as the new administration’s “shock and awe” rampage of mass layoffs and spending freezes fills even many voters who supported Trump last November with dread and regret.

The contrast between yesterday’s massive turnout to support Rep. Crow’s fight back against Trump 2.0 and what’s happening at Republican town halls–to the extent they are occurring at all–could not be clearer. After a series of embarrassing on-camera embarassments in recent days, NBC News reports that House Republicans are being advised by their leadership to pull the plug on in-person town halls completely:

House Republicans are becoming weary and wary of in-person town hall meetings after a number of lawmakers have faced hometown crowds angry about the Trump administration’s push to slash government programs and staffing.

Party leaders suggest that if lawmakers feel the need to hold such events, they do tele-town halls or at least vet attendees to avoid scenes that become viral clips, according to GOP sources. [Pols emphasis]

A GOP aide said House Republican leaders are urging lawmakers to stop engaging in them altogether.

All four of the state’s Republican members of Congress have large populations set to be impacted by either the huge expected cuts to Medicaid and federal safety nets or by the mass layoffs of thousands of federal workers currently underway. Colorado’s most vulnerable Republican in Congress, freshman Rep. Gabe Evans of CO-o8, has an estimated 125,000 Medicaid and CHIP children’s health insurance patients in his district, as well as thousands of federal employees nervously watching their inboxes for a DOGE layoff notice.

As now ex-Sen. Cory Gardner learned the hard way, hiding from one’s constituents during moments of adversity in Washington that Trump so regularly manufactures quickly becomes its own scandal. The more public opinion sours on Trump and DOGE’s heedless rampage through our institutions, the more any failure of Colorado Republicans to show their faces will stand out.

So far, predictions that Gabe Evans’ career will closely track Gardner’s rapid rise and one-term fall are on course.