One week after CNN reported Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks told fellow Republicans she would hold town hall meetings “when hell freezes over,” the three-term incumbent held a town hall meeting. Sort of.
Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, held what her office calls a telephone town hall meeting on Wednesday. Unlike an in-person town hall meeting, a telephone version allows a politician’s aide to select who is allowed to ask questions, control what is heard during the call and spare the politician any embarrassment that is not caused by the answers they choose to provide.
During a private meeting in March, the chair of the Republican National Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, advised House Republicans to stop holding in-person town hall meetings because the media coverage of angry constituents demanding lawmakers stand up to the Trump administration, or demonstrate anything but abject loyalty, was embarrassing and politically harmful.
Hudson’s advice came almost three full months before Sen. Joni Ernst made national headlines with her “Well, we all are going to die” response to shouted concerns about Medicaid cuts during a town hall meeting in Butler County. But by that time, Miller-Meeks had already given up on in-person town halls during this election cycle.
Speaking at a meeting of the Johnson County Republican Party in August, Miller-Meeks complained about being expected to hold public town hall meetings in a congressional district, which, even though it’s elected her three times, is not solidly Republican. A video of the meeting was posted online, and went unnoticed until CNN’s Oct. 6 report quoting Miller-Meeks’ “hell freezes over” comment. The Johnson County Republican Party then took the video down, but copies of Miller-Meeks’ remarks can still be found on YouTube and in media reports.
“So, I’m in a swing district. We have other members in swing districts. We took the hard votes on reconciliation,” Miller-Meeks said, referring to her support for President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “We’ve been beat to crap over what we did on Medicaid. You know because you all have seen it.”
“Bernie Sanders came here in February to attack me,” Miller-Meeks continued. “Pete Buttigieg has been here to attack me.”
Sanders did come to Iowa City in February on his “Fighting Oligarchy” speaking tour. He attacked President Trump and his policies, and the role of oligarchs in American politics and society. Sanders never mentioned Miller-Meeks’ name. He did tell members of the capacity crowd at the Englert Theatre to call and write their congress member to push them to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The Vermont senator chose Iowa City as a tour stop because Johnson County is represented in Congress by a Republican, but voted for Kamala Harris. Sanders said Republicans who represented such districts can be persuaded to oppose Trump if their constituents demand it. But it seemed to be a generic belief, as he did not appear to know anything about Miller-Meeks. Sanders just believes that congressional Republicans aren’t actually in favor of cutting Medicaid and Medicare for their constituents.
Sanders also told people, as he did at other tour stops, “to demand that your member of Congress hold a town hall meeting with you.” It’s possible that is what Miller-Meeks considers an attack.
In May, Pete Buttigieg spoke at a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, which is not in Miller-Meeks’ district. He did not give speeches in either the 1st Congressional District or the 3rd Congressional District. (Miller-Meeks represents the 1st, but lives with her husband in the 3rd District. She does rent an apartment in Davenport, so she can claim residency and vote in the district she represents.) Buttigieg did not attack Miller-Meeks during his Cedar Rapids appearance.
After complaining about Sanders and Buttigieg, Miller-Meeks turned her attention to ads about the lack of town halls, and groups like Progress Iowa, an advocacy organization, responding to her not holding in-person public town hall meetings and inviting her to attend (she hasn’t attended any). She also complained about reporters being interested in whether she will hold in-person town halls.
“They’ve been on broadcasts, they’ve been on radio. There are billboards all across the district. They have had fake town halls. Even now, Tom, you know, Barton of the Cedar Rapids Gazette– ‘when’s Miller-Meeks going to hold a town hall?’ When hell freezes over.”
The Johnson County Republicans laughed.
“You know, I don’t have to hold a town hall so you can come and yell at me,” Miller-Meeks continued. “You can yell at me at the county fair, and you did. And you did. And you did. You know, you yell at me in church, you yell at me at the county fair. I’m out in public all the damn time. Someone yelled at me at the speedway. You have plenty of opportunities to yell at me and tell me I should be ashamed of myself. And, by the way, I am not.”
The Republicans laughed again and there was a smattering of applause.
Miller-Meeks’ assertion that appearing in public places is the same as holding town hall meetings is one being used by other Republicans not holding public meetings with their constituents, including Zach Nunn.
Nunn is in his second term representing Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District (which makes him Miller-Meeks’ congressman). He’s been repeatedly criticized for never holding a public town hall meeting since he was first elected to Congress in 2022. Nunn’s office has responded to the criticism by saying Nunn has participated in 305 public events during his time in Congress, but none of them are public town hall meetings that allow a free Q&A with Iowans.
“We do public events all the time, and we make sure that those are well-shared,” Nunn told reporters on Aug. 25. “We’re not going to do what the Democratic groups want us to do and just host a taxpayer-funded protest event.”
It seemed as though Nunn had changed his mind in September, because a Nunn public town hall was announced for the Greene County city of Jefferson on Sept. 5. But the day before the event, Nunn’s office announced it would be an invitation-only meeting instead of a public town hall.
On Friday night, Nunn will have the opportunity to participate in a public town hall meeting, co-hosted by a prominent Des Moines businessman — Mike Draper, founder of Raygun.
The hour-long event scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Central Library in Des Moines (1000 Grand Ave) has its roots in social media posts by Nunn last month.
Like many Republicans, Nunn was apparently looking for things to stoke outrage following the killing of Charlie Kirk. He picked an old Raygun shirt with no connection to Kirk.
“On the eve of Charlie Kirk’s memorial — a loving father, husband, and a leader who engaged in civil debates — this T-shirt remains available for purchase on the Raygun website,” Nunn posted on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
“Political disagreements should never involve violence, and Raygun should pull this shirt immediately.”
The shirt doesn’t “involve violence.” Its question, “Is he dead yet?” clearly refers to President Trump, who, at 79, is reaching the upper limit of life expectancy for someone with his lifestyle.
After Draper saw Nunn’s posts, he responded on social media.
“We made a post on Facebook, inviting Zach to talk about it,” Draper told Little Village. “I thought it’d be interesting if he actually wanted to talk to us.”
Nunn did not respond, but the post did attract attention. Progress Iowa suggested public discussion between Nunn and Draper, structured as a town hall, where both would also answer questions from the audience.
Draper agreed immediately. Nunn has not responded.
“We’ve messaged him, emailed him, called his office and texted his cellphone,” Draper said. “But they haven’t responded.”
“As what I would consider a pretty substantial taxpayer and job creator in his district — I have sent the state of Iowa and the federal government a mountain of money over the last 20 years — I feel like that has earned me one sit-down with my representative.”
Nunn should have the time to attend, since Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is refusing to call the House into session during the shutdown of the federal government.
“You haven’t worked in weeks,” Draper said about Nunn. “And you are a part of the least productive Congress in American history, so even when you’re on the clock, so you’re not doing that much anyway.”
There will be a chair onstage at the library for Nunn, and the event will start at 7 p.m. on Oct. 17, whether the congressman is there or not.
One topic Draper wants to discuss with Nunn is the impact of President Trump’s arbitrary system of tariffs.
“They like to talk about tax cuts, but the tariffs are a tax hike,” he said. “As fate would have it, just this year we bought a $60 thousand screenprinting press for Raygun — which is only made in Europe — and because of the tariffs it had a 15 percent tax on it that wasn’t there last year.”
Draper wants to ask Nunn — “or the chair” — how that can be considered by a tax cut.
“I think the chair’s answer is going to be as compelling as whatever Zach’s answer would be,” he said. “Because there’s no way to cheat the math at this point.”
“Draper & Nunn: The Discussion of the Century!” is free and open to the public, but space is limited. so organizers are encouraging people to register in advance.
