Updated as of 12:03 p.m. on April 25 to include video.
Democrat U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy hosted a town hall at the Haw River Ballroom in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District Thursday April 24.
The town hall was part of the Democratic National Committee’s “The People’s Town Hall” campaign. The campaign aims to go into Republican controlled districts and host town hall meetings with representatives from the Democratic Party. The campaign is a reaction to congressional Republicans being advised to not hold in-person town hall meetings in their districts by North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District Rep. Richard Hudson in a closed door meeting on March 4.
District 9 encompasses Alamance, Hoke, Moore and Randolph counties, as well as parts of Guilford, Chatham and Cumberland counties.
Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, declined Elon News Network’s request for an interview but instead shared a written statement.
In the statement, Hudson wrote that while House Republicans want to be accessible in their districts, they are being prevented by Democrat organizers.
“Democratic organizations are paying people to hijack in-person town halls, which prevents us from having a normal dialogue with our constituents,” Hudson wrote.
Hudson did not provide any evidence that town halls were being interrupted by paid protesters, a claim he and other Republicans have made about audience members who have interrupted meetings.
Instead of holding in-person meetings, Hudson urged Republicans to hold virtual town halls in order to mitigate interruptions from attendees. Hudson hosted his own over-the-phone town hall on March 25.
“We need to use technology to reach our constituents, hear their concerns and have a productive conversation,” Hudson wrote.
The People’s Town Hall featured speaking spots for multiple North Carolina representatives including North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls. Earls spoke about the legal battle between Allison Riggs and Jefferson Griffin, the two candidates for the empty Supreme Court seat who are still arguing in court over the validity of 60,000 ballots.
Alamance County School Board member Seneca Rodgers also spoke at the event. Rodgers focused his message to attendees on protecting public education and the negative impact school vouchers have on public schools.
“You have parents wondering what that's gonna look like for their kids, especially like our kids with disabilities or our kids in low income schools and everything,” Rodgers said. “So it always creates this chaos and these moments of people not knowing what's gonna happen next. And so trying to calm that, but then also trying to advocate for those things to continue to go on because they're needed.”
Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party Anderson Clayton and North Carolina General Assembly Minority Leader Robert Reives both spoke about Hudson’s comments and the apparent refusal of Republican representatives to hold in-person town halls.
“I really wanted to bring people to rural North Carolina and I wanted to bring the people's town hall to a place where you don't normally find,” Clayton said. “Even though they've been doing it across the country, I feel like it's been in other bigger places versus coming out to a red rural county and saying, no, we're gonna show up even here.”
Throughout their remarks to attendees, Murphy and Frost continuously called out Hudson for not holding in-person town halls. Murphy said to attendees that the job of a congressman was to show up for their constituents, but Hudson is hiding.
According to The People’s Town Hall, part of its messaging is to provide constituents of Republican representatives with access to members of the Democratic Party to have their voices heard. Throughout the night, different speakers took the time to call on their Republican counterparts to show up in their districts.
Many Republicans have heeded the advice of Hudson and have not scheduled town halls during Congress’ current recess which lasts until April 28. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did not listen to Hudson and recently came under fire for a turbulent town hall she held on April 15. Greene was disrupted by members of the audience waving signs and yelling at her. Many were escorted out of the venue, and three audience members were arrested.
During The People’s Town Hall Frost and Murphy were not interrupted by protesters but were met with timely cheers and boos by attendees. Clayton said there were 400 people in attendance.
Frost and Murphy spoke about public school funding, due process for all people and the need for unity among citizens across the country before answering questions from members in the crowd and pre-written questions that attendees wrote while they waited in line to enter the venue.
“This isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans, it’s about the people versus the problem,” Frost said. “This movement is about addition not subtraction.”
The questions the representatives were asked covered multiple topics, including the economy, public school education, public safety and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Attendee Martha Ann Rabon said she is extremely concerned with the direction the country is heading and feels that the American government is focusing more on greed rather than helping the citizens the government is meant to represent. Rabon praised Murphy and Frost for hosting these events and educating the public.
“The fact that they are so committed to keeping our democracy and helping people to really be informed correctly about what's taking place in this country, that they're willing to go and do this kind of traveling all across the country to try to really educate people about what's going on,” Rabon said.
Zachary Riley, another attendee, was critical of Hudson’s representation and said he openly called for him to be voted out of office in the 2026 midterm elections.
The DNC has more town halls scheduled across the country for the next week, but Clayton said she is hoping to host more events in other parts of North Carolina.
“I honestly wanna come back and do one in this district too in Southern Pines because that's where Richard Hudson actually lives,” Clayton said. “And take it all over and make sure that people feel like their voices are heard.”