25-03-2025
Hundreds show up to town hall worried sick over federal cuts but Ohio GOP congressman a no-show
Huron County constituents gather for a town hall. While organizers said they sent multiple invitations to U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, the office of the Republican congressman reportedly never responded and did not show. (Photo by Marilou Johanek, Ohio Capital Journal.)
Extra chairs were added to accommodate the overflow crowd at a recent town hall meeting in Ohio's 5th U.S. congressional district, a sprawling territory that includes all or part of 12 counties northwest of Cleveland to the Indiana border. A seat was reserved for U.S. Rep. Bob Latta at a table with a microphone and name placard, but the Bowling Green Republican was a no-show.
A local group of Huron County constituents from Firelands Indivisible organized the affair. Members said they reached out to Latta's office on multiple occasions with requests to attend the town hall while the lawmaker was back in the district on recess. Some even tried to hand-deliver an invitation to the congressman's Elyria post. They never heard back from him.
Latta's chief of staff, Emily Benavides, informed me her boss would be in 'Seneca and Hancock counties all day' and thus was unable to appear before a large audience of anxious constituents in neighboring Huron County.
She emailed a brief platitude about how the nine-term congressman 'appreciates the opportunity to continue meeting and speaking with constituents — including providing timely responses to their inquiries through calls, emails and letters — as he has done throughout his time in public service.' Except, perhaps, when the heat is turned up in Latta's district and people clamor for a traditional town hall.
For example, it got pretty hot in the 5th before U.S. House Republicans, including Latta, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017. Supporters of Obamacare were up in arms across the country over another GOP attempt to repeal the landmark law that extended medical coverage to over 20 million Americans.
Local citizens reached out to Latta's office on multiple occasion asking for a traditional town hall to talk health care but heard nothing back (a pattern?). The Republican's hometown newspaper headlined a story about the evasive congressmen: 'Latta missing in action as citizens demand town hall.'
The account quoted numerous residents upset that their congressman was 'hiding' from them, ducking a 'real face-to-face town hall with your constituents,'(many of whom benefited from the ACA) doing photo ops to 'give the impression you are listening to your constituents,' or holding poorly publicized 'telephone town halls' where calls can be screened 'so as not to include anything we actually are demanding accountability on.'
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Fast forward to March 19, 2025. Another headline in another local newspaper noted 'Latta's empty chair' at a Huron County town hall the previous night. But it also detailed something remarkable happening in Ohio and other states. Constituents came in droves to the Norwalk meeting anyway. Nearly 200 of them filed into a community center compelled by the daily firehose of crazy from Washington.
These people weren't what Republicans called 'paid protestors' in 2017 and today. The people who went to the event weren't 'agitators' or 'radical leftists' — as GOP leaders in D.C. have claimed about constituents demanding to be heard. They were everyday citizens worried sick about a country unraveling fast. They were newly engaged voters who were paying attention and plenty alarmed.
They sought reassurance from their representative in a scary time but had to settle for his MIA snub, instead. Undeterred, they scribbled questions on cards to a panel of experts that filled in for Latta. The specialists focused on local ramifications of the shambolic dismantling of the federal government without any measured planning or forethought.
A fifth-generation farmer who once led the Ohio Farmer's Union feared what the random slashing of farm-to-school food programs and farming subsidies (already approved) would do to hard hit farming communities in the state bracing for another round of agricultural tariffs — after losing billions in Trump's 2018 trade war with China.
A former Navy pilot who's written extensively on civil-military affairs described the abiding sense of betrayal felt by veterans over sweeping cuts at the VA arbitrarily eliminating thousands of jobs, comprehensive health services and recently expanded benefits — which included zeroed-out spending for a fund meant to cover costs for illnesses linked to military burn pits and other chemical exposure.
A medical professional with 30 years in the nursing field warned about devastating consequences to the most vulnerable Ohioans (and especially rural hospitals) from the deep cuts to Medicaid and the ACA's Medicaid expansion that House Republicans, including Latta, put on the table when they passed their budget bill. That could force the largest Medicaid cuts in American history to pay for Trump's 4.6 trillion tax cut to the ultra-rich.
An Oberlin college professor was stark about Trump invoking wartime powers to deport undocumented immigrants without due process: 'If he can use this (the Alien Enemies Act of 1798) to deport immigrants he doesn't like, he can then use this act to intern those Americans who say things he doesn't like.'
The crowd was also terrified about their earned Social Security benefits being in the crosshairs of the president's unelected billionaire bestie. More than 2.4 million Ohioans rely on the social safety net Elon Musk is taking aim at while pushing changes to make it harder for seniors to access benefits. Latta's constituents were desperate for answers, or at least a public reckoning, about the most serious threats many have ever faced in their lifetimes.
He gave them an empty chair.
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