Field Report :: Oviedo, Florida Town Hall Meeting

Meeting the Good People of Florida's 7th Congressional District

Thanks to everyone who came out and everyone who watched online!

Last night, The Union and local leader Jennifer Adams hosted a town hall meeting in Oviedo, Florida, part of the 7th Congressional District ‘represented’ by Congressman Cory Mills. We invited Mills to join us, but he declined. Per the locals, he hasn’t held a public meeting more than two years. Given that he is neither from the district nor does he live there, this is no surprise.

This is the first of many town halls The Union will host this year and next. As I learned from my travels last year, our issues manifest in Washington, DC, but they’ve begun, grown, and festered at the local level. Democracy wasn’t a winning message last year because too many voters didn’t believe it works anymore, and who can blame them? Year in and year out, the political class makes promises they have no intention of keeping.

The road forward begins not at the national level, but in towns like Oviedo, with people like I met last night, who, despite everything going on, are still giving their time and energy to a cause greater themselves, for the benefit of their communities, friends and family.

About 50 people (plus another 300+ on our livestream) gathered in the grill room of the Twin Rivers Golf Club, a local municipal course. The young woman working the counter is a junion the University of Central Florida just down the road and is going to UCF on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. Most of the folks were older, and politically attuned, but to a person positive in outlook, and not willing to give up.

No Accountability, No Representation

Almost to a person, attendees said they’d contacted Mills’ office on at least one occassion, some more than once. If they managed to speak with someone from his district office, they found them rude and dismissive. But, one person noted, several weeks into the Trump administration, the office staff began employing sales tactics, “Wouldn’t you agree that we should do all we can to root out waste, fraud, and abuse?”

I’d be interested to know if this is a one-off tactic, or something systematic in Republicans’ ‘constituent services.’