LEXINGTON — More than 900 people gathered Saturday morning for what was billed as a People’s Town Hall at the Kentucky Theatre. Many waited in line to address an empty chair on stage next to a sign that said “Reserved for Congressman Andy Barr.”
Multiple speakers, including Brady Blanton of Richmond, alluded to Republican Barr’s earlier suggestions that attendees were “liberal activists” or paid to be there.
“I’m not a paid protester; I’m a blue collar worker,” Blanton said. “I am a child of Social Security survivors benefits and Medicaid after my father passed away 15 years ago and they kept my family afloat.”
Blanton, 26, told the Lantern he works for a plastics manufacturer in Winchester. He said he still depends on Medicaid to provide his 2-year-old daughter’s health insurance and that he worries that cuts to Veterans Affairs will hurt his grandfather, a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Blanton noted that the U.S. House’s budget blueprint would increase defense spending by $100 billion while cutting $880 billion from health and human services such as Medicaid, which covers 196,729 people in the 6th Congressional District or 26% of Barr’s constituents. Almost 1 in 3 Kentuckians are enrolled in Medicaid.
Barr says don’t worry about Trump and Musk, but declines chance to reassure upcoming town hall
The Department of Veterans Affairs would lose 80,000 jobs under a planned reorganization by the Trump administration, according to an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press. VA provides health care and other services to veterans.
Older speakers talked about their fathers’ military service, including fighting fascism in World War II, and their distress at what they see as Republican President Donald Trump’s embrace of authoritarianism while giving longtime allies the cold shoulder.
Describing himself as a lifelong Republican, Edwin Gibson said his father had served in the Navy during the Korean War and that he himself had been stationed in the Army in Germany during the Cold War. “Congressman Barr, you are complicit in the betrayal of our democracy,” Gibson said.
Barr, of Lexington, who is mulling a run for U.S. Senate next year to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, took to X (formerly Twitter) Saturday morning to “set the record straight” in response to what he called “the handful of people who falsely claim they cannot reach anyone in my office or that I ‘refuse to hold town hall meetings.’”
Barr in his X post said that he and his staff are in daily contact with his constituents and that they host monthly office hours in every county of the district. He said he is hosting a telephone town hall Monday night.
“What we will not do is provide a forum for individuals more interested in grandstanding than engaging in a respectful and constructive conversation,” Barr said.
Organizers with the nonpartisan group Gathering for Democracy said that after not getting a commitment from Barr in response to their invitations, they decided to schedule the town hall to give people “distressed by what is happening in our government” an opportunity to come together and talk about their concerns.
“The intent is to invite dialogue,” said Judith Humble, one of the event’s organizers. She said volunteers handed out 800 cards for attendees to fill out before running out of cards.
Speakers were filmed and the video will be sent to Barr; attendees could write a question and tell their story to the congressman on the cards, which also will be sent to Barr. Former Lexington Mayor Steve Kay moderated.
Concerns voiced during the gathering ranged widely from cuts to the U.S. Forest Service cited by a speaker who identified himself as an archaeologist to worries that the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development will cancel expansion of the University of Kentucky’s partnernship with the underserved community of Santo Domingo, Ecuador.
Students, faculty, staff and community members participate in UK’s Shoulder to Shoulder Global, described on the program’s website as “transformative, short-term experiences in global health.” Plans to start a physical rehabilitation center as part of the program are on hold because a federal grant has been frozen, said physical therapist Lynn English.
Barr also took to X after the gathering saying: “Nice to see Soros + the left lighting money on fire. No amount of manufactured outrage by paid activists will stop the mandate for total overhaul of DC” and reiterating his support for Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has advised Republicans to avoid town halls after some GOP representatives have faced hostile crowds.
The Kentucky Democratic Party and former U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville plan to hold a town hall in Lexington Wednesday at the Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
An earlier version of this story contained an error about Edwin Gibson’s father’s military service. He served in the Navy during the Korean War.Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.