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Backlash may be underway: GOP Congressman in deep-red Texas district faces rough town hall [1]

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Date: 2025-02-23

There have already been a lot of signs that Trump 2.0 is cresting. For starters, a tranche of polls released last week shows Trump’s approval rating hovering in the mid-40s—his ceiling for the better part of his first stint. Not exactly the earmarks of a mandate. Moreover, almost all of his policy priorities are losers with the public.

But wait a minute. Even though this would be a danger sign for a normal president, we’re dealing with a guy whose most diehard supporters are so firmly loyal to him that he governs like he won 400 or more electoral votes. Well, according to The New York Times, a town hall in one of those districts may have offered the strongest evidence that Trump has crested. That would be Texas’s 17th district, based in Waco and represented by Republican Pete Sessions.

On paper, TX-17 is solid Republican turf. It has a Cook PVI of R+13, and Trump garnered 60 percent or more of the vote in all three of his runs, including 64-35 in 2024. But when Sessions showed up for a town hall in Trinity, on the far eastern portion of his district, he was in for a surprise.

(Sessions) came prepared to deliver a routine update on the administration’s first month in office. Instead, he fielded a barrage of frustration and anger from constituents questioning Mr. Trump’s agenda and his tactics — and pressing Mr. Sessions and his colleagues on Capitol Hill to do something about it. “The executive can only enforce laws passed by Congress; they cannot make laws,” said Debra Norris, a lawyer who lives in Huntsville, arguing that the mass layoffs and agency closures Mr. Musk has spearheaded were unconstitutional. “When are you going to wrest control back from the executive and stop hurting your constituents?” Louis Smith, a veteran who lives in East Texas, told Mr. Sessions that he agreed with the effort to root out excessive spending, but he criticized the way it was being handled and presented to the public. “I like what you’re saying, but you need to tell more people,” Mr. Smith said. “The guy in South Africa is not doing you any good — he’s hurting you more than he’s helping,” he added, referring to Mr. (Elon) Musk and drawing nods and applause from many in the room.

When Sessions touted his support of Trump’s moves, several people replied with “hushed but audible expletives.” Not exactly the kind of thing you expect to see in a district that’s R+10 or worse.

Sessions isn’t the only Republican from a seemingly crimson-red district who got a hostile reception at a town hall during this recent recess. In GA-07, Rich McCormick got hooted and jeered when he tried to defend DOGE’s access to government data. Trump won it 60-38 after it was gerrymandered in redistricting, and it has a PVI of R+10. In WI-05, Scott Fitzgerald found himself scrambling when voters demanded answers about whether essential services faced more cuts. This district has long been a classic suburban conservative bastion; Trump won it 60-38.

If Trump really has a mandate, why are we seeing scenes like this in districts this red? The short answer is that he doesn’t have one.

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