Angst pervades a pair of Republican town halls — one in Trump country, the other in a swing state

EVANSTON, Wyo. — In two congressional districts and vastly different political environments, two Republican congress members were met with far different reactions at public meetings they held late last week.

Against the suggestion of their leader, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, to refrain from holding public meetings with constituents, second-term Reps. Chuck Edwards and Harriet Hageman went ahead with their evening sessions.

In Asheville, N.C., chants of opposition greeted Edwards on Thursday as opponents hooted at almost every answer he gave and chanted outside. In Evanston, Wyo., at the southwestern corner of a sparsely populated and heavily Republican state, it was mostly Republicans who asked probing questions of Hageman in a quieter setting.

In both cases, voters were curious about the scope and pace of action in Washington since President Trump took office, if less boisterously in Wyoming than the event 1,800 miles to the southeast.

Evanston, Wyo.

Joy Walton, a 76-year-old Republican from Evanston, had come to the meeting confused about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s role in the executive branch. Trump has tasked Musk with leading a broad effort to shrink the size and cost of government.

Hageman — Liz Cheney ’s successor — worked to clarify Musk’s place in the Trump administration, describing him as “a special government employee” with “a top-secret security clearance.” She praised him for his work targeting foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling the department a “monstrosity and waste of money.”

The meeting was tamer than some constituent meetings held by Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and the Senate. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, adjourned such a meeting this month in northwest Kansas early when constituents became vocally angry about government personnel cuts.

Still, Hageman’s meeting Friday, with about 250 filling to capacity the meeting room in the restored Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse, was the liveliest event that evening in the train depot town of about 11,800 people.

Some in the audience blurted comments to Hageman, though this was not unfriendly territory for Trump. The president received 80% of the vote in Uinta County, along the Utah border, en route to carrying Wyoming with nearly 72% of voters last year.

Yet even some devout Republicans gave voice to concern about Musk’s recommendations as the head of the administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Former Wyoming Secretary of State Karl Allred, 60, said he was happy to see Trump slash “wasteful spending,” but noted that any serious reduction in federal spending needed to include the defense budget. “I guarantee we waste a lot of money there, and in every department,” Allred said regarding the military.

Even Hageman suggested Musk was going too far in targeting the U.S. Postal Service, which has agreed to assist Musk’s group in its plan to cut 10,000 of the service’s 640,000 workers over the next month. Wyoming would be among the states hit hardest by cuts to the country’s mail service because of its small population, Hageman said.

Asheville, N.C.

Edwards was walking into a far different environment. Asheville, a mid-sized urban hub surrounded by the rural hills of western North Carolina, is the seat of Buncombe County, where Trump received 36.9% of the vote last year.

Jay Carey, a 54-year-old Democrat, had said before the Thursday night constituent meeting at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, “My plan is to call him out.”

About 20 minutes into Edwards’ meeting, Carey, a retired military veteran, started to yell at the representative to “Do your job.” Carey then stood, accused Edwards of lying and used a string of expletives until police escorted him out of the auditorium.

For about 90 minutes, Edwards faced jeers, boos and pointed questions from many in the audience of 300, while 1,000 more echoed them from outside the building.

Certainly, Carey, from the Asheville area, was part of a group of Democrats who attended the meeting, though not paid protesters as Johnson suggested were behind some of the more raucous gatherings.

Carey’s home flooded with six feet of water during Hurricane Helene in September. He lost his small business and his family had to relocate from a house to a smaller apartment.

Much of Edwards’ district was ravaged by the hurricane and remains in the early rebuilding phase, even as Trump has suggested eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Edwards seemed unruffled by the often hostile reception, telling reporters afterward, “I appreciate the chance to talk about those things, even though there were some differences and some different opinions.”

Still, as protesters continued to chant outside, Edwards said, “We’re doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington, D.C., to do.”

Schoenbaum, Seminera and Beaumont write for the Associated Press. Seminera reported from Asheville and Beaumont from Des Moines.