April 24, 2025 12:52 PM UTC

Jeff Hurd Won't Hold a Town Hall Meeting for...Reasons

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• by: Colorado Pols

Freshman Congressman Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) has been an interesting mixed bag in his first few months in Congress. While Hurd has made some good decisions that speak to a desire to serve his constituents in the third congressional district, he has also demonstrated the all-too-familiar Republican fear of speaking to those same constituents in a public setting.

For the most part, Hurd has gone along with whatever House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump have demanded of him. Unlike his fellow Republicans from Colorado — Reps. Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, and Gabe Evans — Hurd has also shown a willingness to stand up against specific proposals that would inarguably result in significant harm to the people of CO-03. Hurd signed onto a letter, along with several Republican colleagues, opposing any plans to cut Medicaid (roughly one-third of the residents of CO-03 rely on Medicaid for health coverage, the largest percentage of any Colorado congressional district). Hurd has also spoken out in opposition to Trump’s Tariff War, which is causing great harm to agricultural and business interests in Western and Southern Colorado. He’s even been critical of bumbling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who may soon be adding “former” to his title.

Yet Hurd has continued to struggle when it comes to perhaps the most important role for a Member of Congress: Interacting with his constituents. Hurd has refused to hold a traditional town hall meeting, choosing instead carefully-managed tele-townhall meetings that he still managed to botch.

As Reuben M. Schafir reports for The Durango Herald (which has been providing excellent political news coverage lately), Hurd’s constituents are growing tired of his invisibility routine:

The lawmaker has yet to hold an in-person town hall since taking office.

That’s not unintentional. [Pols emphasis]

Around the country, Republicans have faced intense criticism at public forums, as constituents confront them over their role – or lack thereof – in challenging the administration of President Donald Trump, who has increasingly tried to expand the reach of his executive office. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was jeered at a town hall last week, the same day police used Tasers on two people who interrupted Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at a town hall north of Atlanta.

“I hope to have a town hall before long,” Hurd said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “I think we just need to make sure that it’s the right time and place and that it’s going to be something that allows for a dialogue and back-and-forth, rather than just shouting.”

Instead, Hurd is filling his schedule with meetings with county commissioners and other smaller groups during his time away from Washington. He met with the state’s agriculture commissioner and other experts in the field at James Ranch on Tuesday night, and headed north to meet with Ouray County commissioners following the Durango meeting.

A staff member said the congressman has routinely taken questions from the public at dozens of meetings across the district and is not shying away from difficult questions. [Pols emphasis]

This is the typical cut-and-paste response that Republican press flaks will offer up, and it always comes across as both silly and condescending. You can’t say that your guy doesn’t shy away from difficult questions after he just got done saying that he is shying away from difficult questions.

And even though Hurd has said some of the right things about wanting to protect Medicaid, for example, his constituents are justified in wanting to know more about what “Bread Sandwich” will actually do when it’s time to vote. On Wednesday, a group of constituents gathered outside Hurd’s Pueblo office in order to ask these very questions (via The Pueblo Chieftain; story is paywalled):

Demonstrators gathering outside Hurd’s Pueblo office included union workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), ColoradoWorkers for Innovative and New Solutions (WINS) and other community advocates who expressed concerns about potential “reforms” and urged Hurd to vote against any bill cutting Medicaid funds…

…”It’s easy to put your name on a letter,” Voss said. “It is much harder to take real action and that is what we are demanding — real action, real commitment to vote no on any cuts to Medicaid, not dress it up in the arms of reform.” [Pols emphasis]

Hurd has also demonstrated a strange refusal to voice an opinion on other key issues. He often cites the fact that he hasn’t bothered to learn more about the subject, which is a weird way to defend yourself. From the Herald:

When pressed in an interview about his stance on the president’s lack of compliance with a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported Maryland man to El Salvador, Hurd was unwilling to take a position or even analyze the situation.

“I think we need to see how this process works out, what the Supreme Court does, how this process works,” he said. “I’d wait and see what the facts are. I think I’m going to reserve judgment until we have a chance to see exactly how this works out.” [Pols emphasis]

Hurd won’t hold a real public town hall — in person — because he doesn’t want people to ask him difficult questions that he doesn’t want to answer. He also doesn’t want people to yell at him, but that’s part of the job of being an elected official. What Hurd still doesn’t understand is that people won’t be as inclined to respond angrily to his comments if he actually has thoughtful responses to their questions.

Hurd would be wise to heed the lessons of recent Colorado history, particularly the story of “Cardboard Cory.” Elected officials who gain a reputation for ignoring constituents don’t tend to remain elected officials for very long. When you gain that reputation, you leave voters only one way to gauge your impact: By your votes.

Given the votes that Hurd will have to take that align with Speaker Johnson or President Trump, that’s not a scorecard we’d want to be judged against.