On March 22, 2025, about 150 people gathered on the Bell County courthouse lawn in Belton, Texas, to hold a town hall for their congressman.

Their congressman did not come. So they brought a life-size decoy of him instead.

John Carter has represented Texas's 31st Congressional District since 2003. That is 23 years. In that time, the last documented in-person town hall he held with his constituents was in 2013 — thirteen years ago.

PolitiFact checked this in 2018, and he was already five years out

This is not a new complaint, and it is not a partisan estimate. In 2018, PolitiFact Texas ran the claim down after Carter's opponent said he hadn't held a town hall in five years. The ruling: Mostly True.

What PolitiFact found is the interesting part. Carter's own communications director, Emily Taylor, defended him by listing the alternatives: 25 telephone town halls over five years, the most recent that June, plus Facebook Live sessions. The last in-person meeting PolitiFact could document was in 2013.

And his staff had a reason. They had said previously that they stopped holding live town halls after the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords, on safety grounds — while also arguing that "town halls are not nearly as effective" as the telephone version.

Gabby Giffords was the one who got shot at a town hall in 2011. Carter has spent the fifteen years since treating that as his reason not to stand in a room in Belton and take questions.

A telephone town hall is not the same event. The host picks who gets un-muted, the questions are screened, and nobody in the room can see how many people are unhappy. That is the appeal.

What happened when they held one anyway

The March 2025 event was organized by Indivisible CenTex. Constituents came to talk about healthcare, public education, veterans' services and government accountability — in a district that contains Fort Hood. Speakers stood up in his absence. A Texas state representative made a surprise appearance to take questions he wouldn't.

"Representation is not a privilege — it's a right." — Sarah Cox, Indivisible CenTex founder

Carter declined repeated invitations and did not attend.

Four months later, on July 14, 2025, the same group came back and protested outside his Belton office — the second time that year. Cox told the Killeen Daily Herald: "Carter hasn't had any town hall meetings since … ever. We call and to voice our concerns and don't hear back."

The group's flyer put the grievance plainly: "Whether it's voting to gut healthcare, cutting food assistance, ignoring veterans' needs, or refusing to meet with constituents — Rep. Carter has made it clear where he stands."

His office's answer was to say those people don't count

Carter's office did not respond by scheduling a town hall. His spokesperson, Emily Taylor, responded like this:

"The far-left Indivisible group emerges when Democrats lose an election, but I'll make it clear that they do not represent what Texas' 31st district voters voted for last November."

Read that again. A sitting congressman's office was asked why he won't meet constituents, and the answer was that those particular constituents voted the wrong way.

They are still his constituents. He represents the whole 31st District — the people who voted for him, the people who voted against him, and the people who didn't vote at all. A representative doesn't get to check the ballot before deciding whether someone is entitled to ask a question.

The pattern, everywhere

This isn't unique to Texas, which is exactly the point. Constituents have taken to holding the meeting themselves and putting an empty chair where their member should be — Bob Latta's constituents did it twice in one year, and a 90-year-old man stood outside French Hill's office every Thursday for a year without getting a meeting. Others reach for the telephone version as cover, the way Mike Carey did — while his office never actually posted the call-in number.

The excuse changes. The result is the same: the member never has to stand in front of a room of people who can talk back.

Why it matters more here

Carter is 84 years old and one of the longest-serving members of the House. He chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that writes the military construction and veterans budget and sits on the defense spending subcommittee. His district holds Fort Hood. The decisions he makes about VA hospitals, base housing and veterans' benefits land directly on the people who came to that courthouse lawn.

Those people had questions about veterans' services. He sent a cardboard cutout's worth of engagement instead.

Thirteen years is long enough. We deserve better.

Sources

Constituents hold people's town hall after Rep. John Carter declines to attend — Baileigh Sheffield, KXXV, March 27, 2025. Additional reporting: Killeen Daily Herald (Caroline Reed, July 14, 2025) and PolitiFact Texas. Photo: KXXV / carter.house.gov.