This is how our founders envisaged American politics. A boisterous meeting, well reasoned, relatively polite and informative. When a self-reliant community comes together to thrash out local governance, this is what happens.
Rep. Dave Brat shocked the political establishment in 2014 when he defeated then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. On Tuesday, Brat was back in the spotlight at a town hall meeting in rural Blackstone, Virginia.
During the lively and occasionally boisterous meeting, Brat was peppered with questions from constituents on a range of policy issues and current events. Despite frequent interruptions—some cheers and other jeers—Brat kept his cool and responded to nearly three dozen questions.
The Daily Signal traveled to Blackstone for Brat’s meeting, and aired footage Wednesday along with interviews with some attendees and the congressman. The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood also interviewed Sondra Clark of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of The Heritage Foundation, about political activism at town hall meetings.