Early in the week, Senator Steve Daines (MT) was presiding over the U.S. Senate when Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) began reading Coretta Scott King’s letter detailing the racially-motivated voter suppression tactics of Jeff Sessions in Alabama. As you probably know by now, Sen. Mitch McConnell evoked an obscure rule to silence her and Sen. Daines agreed, telling Sen. Warren to “take a seat.”
Daine’s legislative colleagues and constituents back home in Montana were not happy. State Senator Mo Essen formally apologized to Sen. Warren and joined with constituents to read Coretta Scott King's letter inside Daine's Missoula office:
Daines staffers told the crowd, which was crammed into the small lobby, not to take photos or video due to sensitive information in the office. The crowd asked the staffers if they would step outside to listen to them. Staffers said they would prefer not to.
So everyone stayed inside, and the protesters took photos and video anyway.
"Our message to Senator Daines is we are extremely disappointed in his ability to listen to his constituents, to have any dialogue with his constituents," said Erin Erickson of Missoula Rises. "He's essentially shutting us out, and to see him on the national stage shutting down a fellow senator is something we cannot ignore."
Constituents have doggedly asked Sen. Daines for a town hall meeting while he’s back home in Montana this week and they’ve been met with silence. Since he hasn’t answered their calls, some constituents decided to put together a welcome party at the Bozeman airport and ask him directly for a town hall. He hurried through the airport, flashing a smile and refusing to talk to constituents, who finally started an impromptu “You work for us!” chant as he jumped into a waiting car and sped away.
The constituents who showed up at the airport said they did so out of frustration from his silence:
Protesters said the chant was unplanned, as they aimed for a peaceful confrontation to state their concern.
“I think it went as well as it could,” said Robbie Gammack, Bozeman resident. “Senator Daines refuses to speak with his constituents. We are asking for a town hall meeting, we have asked that through emails, through voicemails, through his website.”
"It's important that we showed up, which we did, so that part went well,” said Betsy Swartz, Bozeman resident. “But we felt like we didn't really get anywhere in terms of having him stop and just say a few, a few sentences to us or promise us that town hall (meeting).”
You are looking good, Montana! Keep it up. In fact, double down.
Want to see if your elected representatives are going to be holding a town hall near you? CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOWN HALL PROJECT'S LIST OF EVENTS. If your representative is not on that list, call them and ask to hold a town hall.
Attending a town hall near you? Send pics, videos and your reports to socialmedia@dailykos.com.