EDITORIAL: Brad Finstad owes his constituents some real face time

Yahoo

08-03-2025

Mar. 8—Last October, the Post Bulletin endorsed Republican Brad Finstad as he sought a second term representing Minnesota's 1st Congressional District. That endorsement, admittedly, was rather muted. A cynical reader might summarize our position as, "Well, it's too soon to give up on him. Give him two more years."
We could easily have gone the other way. We pointed out that nonpartisan evaluators gave Finstad an effectiveness score of zero, indicating that he accomplished essentially nothing during his first term. And, when it came to policy positions, we acknowledged that we liked his opponent's positions at least as much, if not more, than Finstad's. And, most importantly, we pointed out that during Finstad's first term, we heard from many constituents that he was difficult to reach and seldom made himself available for direct interactions in his district. (PB editors seeking interviews with him before the election had similar experiences.)
Now, after six tumultuous weeks of the new session of Congress, the chorus of voices asking "Where is Brad Finstad?" is getting louder every day.
We see it in our Letters to the Editor — and in letters published in other newspapers, too. We hear it in phone calls we receive from angry constituents. We see it on Finstad's own Facebook page, where even the most innocuous post by the representative immediately attracts dozens, sometimes hundreds, of demands for him to come to Rochester, or New Ulm, or some other city to meet with voters in town hall meetings. Protesters are holding rallies outside his offices across the district.
But Finstad has remained largely silent.
Yes, last week he and his staff arranged a "Constituent Call Update" in which, according his office, 3,000 people listened to him talk about what's happening in Washington and across the nation. If you weren't on that call, it's not your fault — it wasn't publicized. You couldn't sign up to participate in it. Supposedly, people were called at random and invited to join in. No transcript or recording of the call has been released, and we don't know who, if anyone, was allowed to ask a question — or whether those questions were pre-screened.
In other words, this is the kind of event that lets someone claim to have hosted a virtual town hall meeting while avoiding any real interaction with constituents who might be concerned or angry about dramatic shifts in foreign policy, possible cuts to Medicaid, trade wars with Canada and Mexico and a massive overhaul of the federal government under the direction of an unelected billionaire.
Don't expect Finstad to face voters or cameras anytime soon. This week, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, told members of his caucus to stop hosting in-person town hall meetings. A handful of such meetings across the country, including some in Wisconsin, have put Republican lawmakers on the hot seat as they defend the work of President Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Some of the events have ended abruptly, amid choruses of boos.
Republican leaders justify an end to such gatherings by claiming — without a shred of proof — that Democrats are hiring outside agitators to disrupt these events. We scoff at such notions. At this point, if any member of Congress has an unscripted meeting with a few dozen voters, there would be no need to pay anyone to ask tough questions or express outrage. Plenty of people — mostly left-leaning, but some Republicans as well — are appalled by the ongoing slash-and-burn "reforms" of the federal government.
Those constituents deserve to be heard. Finstad, like every other member of Congress, has an obligation to face his district's voters in-person, and to provide meaningful, honest answers to their questions.
Granted, such gatherings in today's political climate aren't for the faint of heart. People who are thrilled with their elected officials tend to stay home, while fear and anger bring people out in droves. But that doesn't justify bad behavior. No elected official, regardless of party affiliation, should have to endure verbal abuse or threats of violence. Someone who cuts loose with a profanity-laced tirade at a town hall should be removed by security, as should someone who won't yield the microphone or interrupts other people.
But the footage we've seen of the supposedly problematic town hall meetings across the country hasn't shown profane, violent or disruptive behavior. That footage has shown people who don't like the events of the past six weeks, and it's not disrespectful for them to ask "How does cutting $2 trillion from the budget while seeking $4.5 trillion in tax cuts reduce the federal deficit?" It's not unfair to ask, "If states' rights are so important, why threaten to cut federal funding for states that resist an executive order?" And it's not un-American to ask, "Why are thousands of veterans being fired despite great performance reviews?"
Sadly, it's risky for embattled House members to provide thoughtful answers to such questions, because re-election is their top priority. (That's true for Democrats, too.) Staying in line, keeping your head down and being mostly silent is increasingly seen as a winning survival strategy for incumbents who are relatively new to D.C. To do otherwise is to risk losing in a primary.
Put more bluntly: Finstad knows he could keep his MAGA base and still lose in 2026, but there's no formula in which he alienates that base yet keeps his seat. Therefore, he likely sees little to gain from putting himself in a room filled with people who disagree with him.
Those people, however, are still his constituents. Finstad doesn't represent just the people who voted for him. America is a never-ending experiment in representative democracy, which means our chosen leaders are duty-bound to hear and consider opinions contrary to their own.
Residents of Minnesota's 1st District deserve a chance to prove that they can ask hard questions in a civil manner. We urge Rep. Finstad to give them that chance — and to prove that he's more than a faithful cog in the party machine. We and the voters showed patience with him in November, but our patience is running out.