Rage, tears, questions, fears: town hall attendees send message to absent Congressman Barr
Rep.'s office calls event 'political stunt'
BEREA — Dozens of citizens spoke their minds to a portrait of Republican Congressman Andy Barr during a town hall meeting held at the Acton Folk Center on Tuesday evening. The man himself was in Washington to vote on legislation, as the House is currently in session.
“We’re here because we understand there’s a long-term job to do to change the politics of this county, and this state and this country,” event co-organizer Lisa Abbott, told The edge in an interview following the town hall. “I don’t think we’re going to get through to Andy Barr, but we might get through to our neighbors, and we might, over time, be able to change who represents us in Congress.”
A day before the event, Barr’s deputy chief of staff, Tyler Staker, told The Edge in an email that, “Our office declined because Rep. Barr will be in D.C. voting tomorrow and the calendar that dictates when members of Congress will be in District versus Washington, D.C. was released in November of 2024 and is PUBLICLY available.” (Emphasis Staker’s.)
Congressional Floor calendars are typically issued soon after November elections, before each Congress starts.
While addressing the picture of Barr, many of the speakers excoriated him for not attending the town hall. The event’s organizers, members of the group, We Show Up, told The Edge they had invited Barr, but his staff declined on his behalf.
We Show Up member, Lisa Abbott, told the gathering at the start, “We’re here tonight because many members of our community are scared and angry about actions by politicians in Washington that are threatening our health, our economic security, our fundamental rights, and our democracy.”
The Rev. Kent Gilbert moderated the event, requesting attendees show a sense of decorum and use tasteful speech before inviting them to line up at the two microphones provided. The overall tone of the event was scathing, if subdued, as 36 Barr constituents from across Kentucky’s 6th District — many of them reading from prepared notes — addressed Barr’s portrait in 90 seconds or less. The audience of around 200 constituents, advised by Gilbert not to applaud or boo during the event, resorted to waving their hands in agreement with speakers.
All speakers expressed outrage, disappointment, and fear about the Trump administration’s actions and Barr’s support for them, including on tariffs, deportation, gun control, humanities programming cuts, and other complaints.
“I’ve written to you dozens of times and traveled to Washington twice to meet with your staff,” Judith Weckman, another member of the sponsoring group, began when it was her turn to speak. “I have one concern that encompasses all of my concerns. It is your support of Trump’s presidency, which is marked by ignorance, corruption, chaos, and bluster,” Weckman said. If Barr continued to be in league with the president, Weckman said she would “Work very hard so that you will not serve in Congress as a Senator or Representative.”
Some speakers became emotional as they addressed Barr’s empty chair. “If there are no workers, where do you think the food is coming from?” asked Jennifer Elam, fighting back tears as she spoke of her family’s farm and the Mexican and Central American workers too afraid to show up to work the fields, or even to feed the horses at Keeneland, where her friend works and reported to Elam how the migrant workers have deserted the stables due to fears of deportation.
“My father’s partner on the farm for 24 years is from Mexico,” Elam said. “He recently told me that his nephew has disappeared, along with 20 of his friends.”
Several speakers referenced Barr’s announcement on April 22 that he wants to replace the long-running Republican US Senator from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell. Fellow Republican and former state attorney general, Daniel Cameron, is also bidding for McConnell’s Senate seat.
“Are you going to push your Housing PLUS policy in the Senate if you’re elected, knowing that it undermines the proven success of the Housing First model,” asked a speaker who identified himself only as “Michael”.
As a senior Member of the House Financial Services Committee, Barr has twice introduced legislation (H.R. 6018 and H.R. 3405) that would reverse current federal housing policy (Housing First) requiring that service providers to homeless populations offer “wrap-around” care.
Barr has stated his proposed legislation is necessary to “ensure that HUD grant funding is reaching providers who are helping people transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency, without unneeded restrictions.”
Housing First is a President George W. Bush era Veterans Administration and Housing and Urban Development initiative intended to reduce homelessness and its attendant issues by providing housing before other services can be delivered. The VA praised the program in 2023, calling it an “evidence-based” solution to homelessness among veterans.
“HUD and the VA have endorsed the common sense idea that the solution to homelessness is a home,” said Michael.
Veterans also had their say with Barr’s portrait. Several speakers identified themselves as former military personnel prior to sharing their thoughts.
“From your days carrying coffee for Ernie Fletcher, you learned that the veterans’ vote is important,” said Craig Pyles, who said that as a Marine, he had been wounded in Vietnam in 1968. “Apparently, you don’t believe that anymore. You never call, you never write, and you sure don’t show up at a town hall meeting.” Pyles added that in the past when Barr attended veterans’ events, “You never inspired me.”
Republican Ernie Fletcher formerly represented the 6th District from 1999 to 2003 until becoming a one-term governor of Kentucky from 2003 to 2007.
Speaker Craig Williams, also a wounded Vietnam War Army veteran, founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, and lead advocate for the decommissioning of the Blue Grass Army Depot’s chemical weapon stockpile, began by thanking Barr for his support of the decommissioning project.
He then asked, “Do you agree with the president’s actions that threaten and in some cases have already suspended habeas corpus?”
Williams was the only speaker to directly address Trump and Barr’s positions on habeas corpus, the right for prisoners to appear before a judge in order to challenge the legality of their detention. It is intended to ensure that prisoners cannot be held indefinitely without due process.
(Disclosure: Williams is a member of The Edge advisory board.)
Others opined at the irony of Barr’s past support of term limits as he runs for what could be his seventh term in elected office. Barr has been in federal office for 12 years, or 6 election cycles. Should he win the Senate seat, Barr will serve for at least another six years.
On the day of the event, Barr’s DC office issued a media advisory accusing We Show Up of staging a political stunt.
“Let's be clear: this event is not about civic engagement. It’s a staged stunt, a media circus, and a desperate attempt to manufacture outrage,” the advisory read.
In an interview following the event, event co-organizers Judith Weckman and Abbott said they had known early on that Barr would not be attending.
“The reason [we] were given that he probably wouldn’t show was security,” Abbott said. “So, we focused more on maybe we could do it by Zoom. They never set a date.”
Weckman confirmed she had been told by staff during an in-person visit to Barr’s DC office that there was a concern for the Congressman’s safety if he were to appear in person. She shared with The Edge an email chain between herself and Barr’s staff. While the emails do not mention security, there was an offer by Barr’s staff to meet with constituents in small groups.
“We cannot meet remotely that evening but our staff is happy to schedule a meeting,” Deputy Chief of Staff Tatum Dale wrote to Weckman. “We typically meet with constituents in groups of 2-3 at a time. We have monthly office hours in Madison County. Or we can schedule a meeting in the Lexington office. Whatever you prefer,” Dale wrote.
Abbott told The Edge the idea to have Barr join remotely was originally his staff’s.
When asked why We Show Up did not offer Barr’s office other potential dates to hold the meeting, Weckman responded, “When we offered the Zoom, we got the response [reported above]. It ducked the offer, in my opinion. So, they were accommodating only in that they offered meeting in small groups.”
“They were never saying, ‘We would love to do this, but we can’t make that date,” said Abbott in the interview.
In materials handed out to the event attendees, We Show Up billed itself as “a cross-partisan group of neighbors in Madison and surrounding counties who have come together to build community, make our voices heard, and protect vulnerable people and our democracy.”
The group plans to send Rep. Barr a video recording of the entire town hall, along with any written comments collected from attendees who did not wish to speak publicly.
Update: This story was updated with information at the top to indicate Barr’s staff reaction to event. April 30, 2025 1:30pm.