Community Government
Crowd at Randall’s town hall asks why Democrats aren’t doing more
A crowd of about 400 people turned out for U.S. Rep. Emily Randall’s first-ever in-person town hall meeting on Friday in Tacoma. Their message for Randall and her Democratic colleagues in Washington, D.C.: Do more to resist President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
She faced questions from constituents wondering why Democrats aren’t, as one man put it, “standing up and fighting for us.”
“I have been frustrated by our inability to take action, too,” Randall said in response to that question. “Part of that is there are not a lot of actions available to the minority party.”
In response, one person in the audience yelled: “Garbage!” Another yelled: “change it!”
Later, Randall told the crowd: “I used to ask myself every morning, is today the day that I burn it down? Or do I work from the inside to change the system?”
A voice in the audience replied: “Burn it down!” The crowd applauded.
An audience member asks a question during Rep. Emily Randall’s town hall meeting in Tacoma on Friday, March 7, 2025. Photo by Vince Dice
Crowd worried about Medicaid, Social Security
Randall hosted the town hall meeting just two months after taking office for her first term. Voters picked the Bremerton Democrat to replace Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, who opted not to seek re-election in 2024.
Audience members at the event Friday at Hilltop Heritage Middle School in Tacoma asked Randall about Republican threats to Medicaid and Social Security. They expressed outrage that Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has access to sensitive data. Some worried that the country is slipping into fascism.
Randall responded that safeguards against Musk and protecting against Medicaid cuts are the “two biggest red lines” for Congressional Democrats.
She said that Republican leaders in budget negotiations are “not committing to saving Medicaid. We as a caucus are continuing to hold that red line. And we will not give them votes (to pass a budget), even if it mean letting them shut the government down.
“I want to be clear. The Republicans will be shutting the government down.”
Lawmakers face a deadline of March 14 to agree on spending in 2025. If they can’t come to an agreement, a government shutdown is possible.
U.S. Rep. Emily Randall speaks at a town hall event in Tacoma on Friday, March 7, 2025. Photo by Vince Dice
Thousands of calls and messages
Randall couldn’t have been surprised by the questions. She said her office has been inundated with calls and messages from constituents — they received 19,000 calls or messages in the first three weeks of February.
About 16,000 people participated in Randall’s a telephone town hall in late February. Yet Republicans aren’t under the same pressure, she told the crowd on Friday.
She urged them to reach out to people they might know who live in Republican parts of the country and ask them to call or email their congressional representatives.
“They (Republican lawmakers) need to feel the same pressure,” she said.
Randall also urged people to write letters to the editor explaining how federal cutbacks are affecting them.
‘It cannot be on Congress’
Her answers did little to placate the crowd. One man said only four or five Congressional Democrats are doing enough to resist Trump and “everybody else seems like mice.”
“It cannot be on Congress to save it. It’s all of us that have to save it,” Randall responded. “We all have to stay angry and we all have to keep showing up and we all have to use the tools that we have. Every tool that we have.”
Randall hosts another town hall at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 7, at Olympic College in Bremerton. She promised future town hall events elsewhere in the Sixth Congressional District, which includes Gig Harbor and parts of Tacoma along with all of Kitsap, Jefferson, Clallam, Grays Harbor and Mason counties.