Republican members of Congress have continued to decline in the number of people attending in-person town halls for years, reaching record lows in the first half of 2026.
Republicans attended just 39 town halls in person this year, the lowest number in the first half of the year in LegiStorm’s history. Republicans held 122 in-person town halls in the first half of 2025 and 229 during the same period in 2024.
Overall, Republican lawmakers attended 234 town halls between January 1 and July 1, compared to 378 during the same period in 2025 and 309 in 2024. In-person events accounted for 17% of Republican town halls, compared to 32% in 2025 and 74% in 2024.
Later, the long-term decline continued House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in March 2025 urged Republican lawmakers to avoid in-person town hall meetings after several controversial events. Since then, Republican Party members have served in 231 town halls, compared to 1,042 in Democratic town halls.
In Pennsylvania, Republican representatives have held no in-person town halls in 2026, and only two since the beginning of the 119th Congress:
- PA-01 (Brian Fitzpatrick). 0
- PA-07 (Ryan Mackenzie). 0. Last: September 24, 2025
- PA-08 (Rob Bresnahan). 0
- PA-09 (and Egypt). 0. Last: December 5, 2025
- PA-10 (Scott Perry). 0. Last year 2019
- PA-11 (Lloyd Smucker). 0
- PA-13 (John Joyce). 0
- PA-14 (Guy Reschenthaler). 0
- PA-15 (Glenn Thompson). 0. Last year 2018.
- PA-16 (Mike Kelly). 0. The last time I asked questions live was in 2015.
In recent years, Democrats have maintained a relatively steady share of brick-and-mortar town halls despite lower overall activity in 2026. Democrats held 451 town halls in the first half of the year, following an lively first half of 2025 with a total of 924 town halls and a quieter first half of 2024 with 214 town halls.
Despite these fluctuations in overall activity, in-person events still make up the majority of Democratic town halls, accounting for 66% of events this year compared to 64% in 2025 and 58% in 2024.
Since the beginning of 2026, Democratic representatives have held in-person 13 town halls in the Keystone State:
- PA-02 (Brendan Boyle). 1. Last: June 18, 2026
- PA-03 (Dwight Evans). 0
- PA-04 (Madeleine Dean). 3. Last: June 2, 2026
- PA-05 (Mary Gay Scanlon). 2. Last: May 26, 2026
- PA-06 (Chrissy Houlahan). 2 Last: April 8, 2026
- PA-12 (summer Lee). 1. Last: June 18, 2026
- PA-17 (Chris Deluzio). 4. Last: June 18, 2026
