Community Government
Smaller, more civil crowd greets Randall at latest town hall
A much smaller crowd turned out for U.S. Rep. Emily Randall’s town hall on Aug. 19 in Tacoma, compared to a March event in the same city.
More than 400 people packed a middle school auditorium for the March event, held during the height of the DOGE cuts to the federal government.
Smaller, more civil crowd
About half that number attended Randall’s event Tuesday at the University of Washington at Tacoma’s William Phillip Hall. While in other times that might be a big crowd to hear a member of Congress speak on a Tuesday night in August, it paled in comparison to Randall’s previous event.
U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, answers a question during a town hall in Tacoma on Tuesday, Aug. 19. Photo by Vince Dice
The tone of the crowd was different, too. The March crowd seethed at what they perceived as inaction by Democrats, with one man asking Randall if her Congressional colleagues were “mice.”
Tuesday’s crowd asked questions about communicating with Generation Z; whether cuts to the health care system might hurt Republicans in 2026; and President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard to American cities.
One man, who said he was from Bremerton, engaged in a lengthy monologue about Project 2025.
Among many other points, Randall echoed her message from March: That it’s difficult for Democrats to do much in Washington, D.C. right now.
About 200 people attended a town hall hosted by U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, D-Gig Harbor, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, in Tacoma. Photo by Vince Dice
Few tools for minority party
Republicans hold a so-called “trifecta” in the nation’s capital, controlling the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Randall, a freshman Democrat from Bremerton, called the options available to lawmakers from the minority party “woefully inadequate.”
“We have tools in committee. We can offer amendments, we can ask questions, we can make speeches. … But we don’t get to decide which bills get heard, we don’t get to decide who comes before committee,” Randall said. “We only get to speak 5 minutes each in committee. That’s frustrating.”
She mentioned a few successes, including saving a FEMA grant for a tsunami tower in the Sixth Congressional District and getting a bill on remote voting for post-partum mothers to the floor of the House (though the latter did not result in approved legislation).
Randall said Democrats are fighting in the court system “and the community and using the tools that we have.”
“I firmly believe that we’re going to see things get a lot worse before they get better. I don’t want to sugar-coat it. That’s just the reality.”
Military on the streets
At least two people at the town hall asked Randall about Trump sending National Guard and active-duty military to Washington, D.C., and previously Los Angeles. One questioner worried that Trump might deploy the military to Washington communities.
“We have been in conversation with our local military, (Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Base Kitsap) regularly. I’m not going to name any commanders … but military members who I know in my community similarly are concerned about what happens under this administration,” Randall said. “Our National Guard also has been thinking a lot about what they might be asked to do under this administration.
“But I also know that the governor (Bob Ferguson) and the AG (Nick Brown) are thinking about what tools they have available to ensure that our National Guard are not forced into action that is counter to our policies and values here in Washington.
She called “militarization” of law enforcement and communities “terrifying and serious.”
“We have to keep watching and pushing back on this admin’s efforts to pull us into fascism,” Randall said. “That is what is happening before our eyes.”