Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu (CA-33) and Linda Sanchez (CA-38) are hosting “town hall” meetings this week in Orange County targeting Republican Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48) and Ed Royce (CA-39).
The meetings are billed as “town halls,” though they are Democratic political events. They will feature an empty chair to represent the Republican congressmen being targeted in each district.
A press release advertising the town halls stated:
“California House Republicans are cowards. Together, they voted to rob 32 million Americans of their health insurance — including more than 5 million people in California — and now they are too afraid to face their constituents,” explained Eddie Kurtz, executive director of the California-based Courage Campaign. “This is a democracy. Californians have the right to be heard by their representatives. The constituents of these cowardly politicians will not sit back and allow California Republicans to destroy the American health care system while hiding in anonymity.”
According to the organizers, including the “Indivisible” campaign and Planned Parenthood, the purpose of the effort is to focus on winning so-called “Hillary districts,” which are represented in Congress by Republicans but which supported Clinton over Trump in 2016. Despite the fact that the GOP has failed thus far to repeal and replace ObamaCare, Democrats are using Rohrabacher and Royce’s votes for repeal against them.
Both Rohrabacher (by almost 17%) and Royce (by almost 15%) won re-election easily, even though Hillary Clinton won both districts over Trump — by 1.8% in Rohrabacher’s coastal district, and 8.5% in Royce’s inland district.
It is highly unusual for Congressional colleagues to directly confront each other in this manner. Breitbart News reached out to each of the representatives involved in this story, and none could be reached for comment.
Tim Donnelly is a former California State Assemblyman and Author, currently on a book tour for his new book: Patriot Not Politician: Win or Go Homeless. He also ran for governor in 2014.
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.donnelly.12/
Twitter: @PatriotNotPol
This post has been updated.