26-04-2025
Rep. Emily Randall, state and local Democrats address Spokane in "People's Town Hall"
Apr. 25—Rep. Emily Randall, Washington's other freshman member of congress, traveled to Rep. Michael Baumgartner's district Friday with other notable local and state Democrats to speak to residents and hear their concerns about "illegal and damaging actions by Trump, Musk and their allies."
The event was meant to let local voters voice their concerns with D.C. to a more receptive audience than Baumgartner, Washington Democrats spokesman Stephen Reed said in an interview ahead of the event. Baumgartner's own town hall in March was frequently derailed by attendees angered by the White House and the congressman's comments.
"We are here to show him how real democracy works, where you hear from the people, and not just campaign donors," said state Democratic party Chair Shasti Conrad, who was also on the panel at Friday's town hall.
In a brief interview, Baumgartner said he was proud of his outreach in his district this year.
"We've done more town halls than any other member of Congress — we've done seven — responded to a record number of engagements with constituents and continue to work hard throughout the district," Baumgartner said. "My sense is this is just a partisan political event for the Democrats, which is just something political parties do, so I'm not particularly surprised or troubled by the fact they're having this event."
Friday's panel at Spokane Community College included Randall, Conrad, Spokane City Councilman Zack Zappone, Spokane Public Schools Board member Jenny Slagle and Spokane County Democratic party Chair Naida Spencer.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown provided opening remarks.
"I just want to acknowledge, this is not the script I ever would have written, that we would be here at this point in time," Brown said. "Once again, every election matters, every vote matters."
Randall opened her remarks by noting her personal connection to Spokane, including having taken her first plane ride from Seattle to Spokane as a child to visit her grandparents, and also where she learned that her predecessor in Congress, Rep. Derek Kilmer, would not be running for re-election.
"And it was here in Spokane that I decided to run for Congress," she said.
She praised many of the steps taken in Washington state to support apprenticeship programs and fund special education, but lamented what she characterized as a lack of support for those efforts from the White House. She argued that there was significantly more bipartisanship in Olympia during her time in the legislature than in D.C. under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
"But in the other Washington right now, there is no incentive for Republicans to work with Democrats," Randall said. "In fact, there are disincentives; this president, Elon Musk, they make phone calls to any Republican members who are not standing up for the party line, who are not stroking the ego of this president."
She stated that the White House and Republicans in Congress were irresponsibly slashing the federal government, relying on "an algorithm that uses more power and water than it does good to cut people's jobs, their livelihoods, the funding that we need to ensure the benefits which they continue saying they're not cutting."
She also noted that during earlier town halls she faced angry constituents who demanded to know why she wasn't taking more radical action, such as protesting and getting arrested through civil disobedience.
"And I have been saying a lot lately that never in history has the government saved us from the government," Randall said. "And I do agree that we have to be creative, we have to think about what tools we can use to put pressure on this administration ... but we also are not going to be able to do it alone.
"We need each and every one of you to think about how we can link arms and use our power and our voices to think about who else isn't in this movement yet." Randall noted that Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation, and argued that tariffs weren't inherently evil, but a tool that requires thoughtful planning.
"Trump doesn't have a blueprint for his tariffs," she said. "Trump's taking the two-by-four and swinging it around to see who he hits and see who he scares off."
Zappone spoke to the local impacts of federal funding freezes, totaling $62 million that stopped flowing and touching areas including police equipment, DUI court, wildfire defenses, a frozen program to plant trees in areas of the city without them, and over $25 million in water and sewer infrastructure funding. He argued that the Trump administration's aggressive stance on deportations had driven away immigrants from shopping and working downtown, and noted recent reporting that fewer Canadian tourists were visiting amid rising tensions between the two countries.
Slagle spoke to various executive orders impacting public education, including on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
"Equity: What it means to Spokane Public Schools is ensuring that our students have a place where they can feel safe and supported," Slagle said. "To think that is what people oppose and what this administration wants to do away with is just not OK with us."
Slagle said she worried about the possible threat to federal funding for the school district because of its commitment to these policies.
"This could have deep impacts across not just our Title I programs, but into many other types of programs that the district does," Slagle said.
Eight attendees were randomly selected to ask questions, and one that particularly lit up the panel was an audience member who pointed out the Democratic party's slipping appeal with working-class voters and asked what could be done to turn around.
Randall, Conrad and Spencer all spoke to the economic difficulties they or their families faced. Conrad noted that her mother had worked until the day she died in order to maintain health insurance, and argued that she would still be alive if she had access to universal health coverage.
Randall argued that working-class voters needed to see working class politicians who could understand their struggles.
"I think many of us probably saw the clip of the new director of the Social Security Administration, talking about how folks can just afford to wait until their next Social Security paycheck," Randall said. "My grandparents certainly couldn't have. But when they added their Social Security to their union pension, they were able to have a dignified retirement."
The Democratic party also has not focused as much effort into down-ballot recruitment and needs to back candidates in "every race, every place," Conrad said.
"If we make everything about Trump, we are not ready for when he moves along, and somebody fills that void right away, and there will be tens and hundreds of Trumps if we don't fight this right now," Conrad said. "We need to be building, obviously, to take back the White House in 2028, but we also have to be looking forward and investing in candidates that can come up and be in the long run with all of us, and thinking about judges and things like that."
