DAVENPORT, Iowa — Hundreds of people cheered Sen. Ruben Gallego at a town hall meeting in eastern Iowa Saturday as the first-term Arizona Democrat assailed the massive, Republican-backed tax bill signed by President Donald Trump as likely to make “America poorer and sicker.”
Gallego’s upbeat event struck the opposite tone from Rep. Mike Flood’s town hall meeting earlier in the week, when an even bigger crowd jeered the Nebraska Republican for most of a 90-minute event in his state to promote the bill.
Democrats, searching for months after last year’s election defeat for footing in opposing the aggressive tone struck by Trump in his second term in the White House, have gone on the offensive this month, still united in their frustration with Trump but suddenly energized in full-throated opposition to his signature legislation.
“I think this bill is helping Democrats see clearly what’s at stake with the future of protections for so many regular Americans,” said Pete Wernimont of Waterloo, who drove 140 miles (225 kilometers) to see Gallego. “I just hope they are there when it really matters a year from now.”
While some Republicans in safe Republican districts are braving crowds to sell Trump’s law, most in Congress are heeding GOP leaders’ suggestion to keep lower public profiles, especially noteworthy during the August recess following closely on Trump’s signing of the tax cut and spending reduction bill last month.
Democratic activists are rallying to point out what they see as the measure’s political liabilities for Republicans trying to hold their narrow majorities in Congress in next year’s midterm elections.
“This is the galvanizing moment that’s happening because Democrats now understand, we’re the people that fight for the middle class and the working class of America,” Gallego told reporters before the event Saturday. “This is a clarifying moment for us.”
For two hours, the audience of some 300 people applauded and at times stood cheering for the Arizona Democrat, one of several party figures who have been attacking the bill in congressional districts represented by Republicans. He was in Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ 1st Congressional District, among the most competitive in the nation in the past three congressional elections.
For a party frustrated with an array of Trump administration initiatives, the measure has had its own energizing effect. “I came here because I work in health care and this bill will hurt health care,” said Alexandra Salter, a physicians assistant from Davenport. “I think we are getting more vocal about it, because we need to speak up.”
The meeting contrasted sharply with Flood’s meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Monday, when an even larger crowd of 700 voiced vigorous opposition to the bill, locking in especially on its changes to Medicaid, the federally funded health care program for low-income American.
The bill, which passed with no Democratic votes in the House or Senate, makes substantial cuts to the health care program, notably by imposing work requirements for many of those receiving aid.
The same frustration that drew Wernimont to Davenport Saturday convinced Ann Ashburn of Aurora, Nebraska, to drive the 70 miles (113 kilometers) to Lincoln to face Flood on Monday.
Ashburn learned about Flood’s appearance through an Omaha-area Democratic group called Blue Dot and reached out to friends who joined her. She dismissed any suggestion that such opposition had been orchestrated.
