Constituents call on Sen. Jeff Flake to host town hall meeting
Feb 24, 2017, 7:37 PM | Updated: 7:37 pm
FILE - In this March 9, 2016, file photo, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Congressional Republicans are beginning to accept, and even embrace, an outcome that was once unthinkable: Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee. “He’s looking more inevitable, yeah. I’ve been wrong all along,” said Flake, an outspoken Trump critic. “My feeling about Donald Trump is, I don’t think that that’s our best foot forward at all. And I can’t imagine being forced to take some of those positions that he’s taken. A ban on Muslims, build a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it, you name it.”(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
PHOENIX — There’s a petition online asking Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to host a town hall meeting so that he can hear from his constituents.
The petition on Change.org has generated nearly 4,000 signatures. It calls on the Arizona senator to host an in-person town hall meeting while he’s in the Valley for the congressional recess.
“I don’t know how he plans to do his job if he doesn’t have a pulse on what real people’s lives are like and what real people are thinking,” said Jaclyn Boyes, a Phoenix resident who created the petition.
This comes as members of Congress from across the country are receiving similar calls from their constituents. Some have opted from having town hall meetings after seeing their colleagues face angry voters in their town hall events.
Last week, a group of residents rallied outside Flake’s house to demand for a town hall meeting. The senator wasn’t home at the time. He was doing a visit at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, according to his Twitter account. On Thursday, a similar rally was staged outside the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in northeast Phoenix, where Flake was being honored by the Arizona Tourism and Lodging Association.
Boyes said she created the petition mainly because she wanted to ask Flake why he voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. She said she was disappointed by his vote.
“There are a lot of other people like me who feel like we have questions that aren’t getting answered,” she said.
KTAR News reached out to Flake’s office for comment but received no response.
