YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli distributed an opinion piece to media outlets Wednesday afternoon following an announcement by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that he would be bringing his Town Hall Tour to the 6th Congressional District, which Rulli represents.
Last month, Walz began touring Republican-held congressional districts to call attention to opposition to President Donald Trump and his administration, and to highlight the representatives of those districts’ lack of engagement with the public. Republican members of Congress have pulled back from such events after facing vocal opposition to the Trump administration’s actions since Trump returned to office.
Monday’s event, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m., specifically targets Rulli, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to succeed Bill Johnson following his resignation to accept the presidency of Youngstown State University.
In the opinion piece, headlined “Rulli Responds to Dishonest ‘Townhall’ Push,” Rulli said a “coordinated campaign” was launched last month “to pressure Republicans with aggressive, threatening, and disrespectful calls, mostly from non-constituents, to host satellite [Democratic National Committee] rallies in their districts, inappropriately dubbed ‘Townhalls.’” He accused “left-wing organizations … amplified by the failing Democrat Party infrastructure” of funding the effort “in a dishonest attempt to stage a grassroots movement.”
He specifically accused MoveOn, “a left-wing organization funded by George Soros and other billionaires from around the country,” of spending millions of dollars to coordinate the campaign “with the express purpose of flooding community centers with out-of-state protestors intent on causing chaos and drowning out the voices of hard-working Americans.”
He further said he refused to permit “paid protestors to make a mockery of the democratic process” and to intimidate his constituents, “who voted overwhelmingly in support of President Trump’s agenda.”
He also said he has received requests from several media outlets that misrepresented his accessibility to constituents and questioned the work he has done to represent them. “These reporters refuse to acknowledge the inorganic nature of these protests and choose to misconstrue activist propaganda as authentic civil concern,” he said.
Since the beginning of the 119th Congress on Jan. 3, Rulli said he has spoken with thousands of constituents and stakeholders, both in the 11 counties of his district and in Washington, D.C., and listened to their concerns; toured dozens of factories, health care centers, universities and other facilities; sponsored “crucial pieces of legislation to protect our seniors’ Social Security, expand rural access to health-care and broadband connectivity, and enact President Trump’s America First agenda”; and communicated openly with the media and his constituents, conducting more than 50 interviews on television, radio and in print, “as well as maintaining an active and responsive social media presence highlighting my views and work in Congress.”
Additionally, he said his office fields and responds to nearly 3,000 constituent calls, letters, and emails weekly and assists constituents daily with hundreds of issues, ranging from Veterans Administration benefits and Social Security claims to U.S. Service Academy nominations and everything in between.
“Lastly, I would like to put forth a challenge to my illustrious friends in the media: instead of magnifying the same activist voices again and again as if they formed a broad consensus, look a little closer at the protestors’ purse strings, playbooks, and places of residence and you’ll see the inconsistencies between their reality and that of the 6th District residents I continue to meet with every day,” he said.