Republican Senator Susan Collins Hasn't Held A Single Town Hall For Years

he 2019 Congressional Accessibility Report, compiled and created by the Town Hall Project, was released on Monday. The figures show that while freshmen congresspeople have been active in providing open forums to the voting public—100 percent of freshman Democratic senators voted into office in 2019 held at least one town hall—and that 11 congresspeople who held no town halls at all in 2018 went on to do so in 2019—over 50 have held none since January 3, 2019.

Among them is Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who, though she has publicly praised the value of town halls by saying that such meetings are an "unvarnished, direct democracy" which "rejects the notion that wealth dictates political discourse," has not appeared at a town hall in her state since her first years as senator.

Collins, who was elected in 1997, has stated a preference for smaller, private one-on-one meetings with her constituents.

"What happens is usually a few people dominate the discussion, and those who are more reserved or less comfortable with speaking in public don't get to talk to the officeholder directly," said Collins in a statement given to The Portland Press Herald in 2017. "I think that's why Maine senators have had a tradition of meeting with groups of constituents or having staff meet with them rather than holding these huge town halls where very few people get to speak and the level of civility is not that high."

https://www.newsweek.com/republican-senator-susan-collins-hasnt-held-single-town-hall-1482004