For more than a year, constituents in Pennsylvania's 9th Congressional District have shown up every Monday morning with the same simple request: hold a town hall.

Last week, at the Schuylkill County Fair, a reporter finally asked Dan Meuser about it.

His answer explains a lot.

"Basically be a piñata"

Meuser told The Republican-Herald that he doesn't take the criticism seriously because it comes from a small group of the same people over and over:

"My constituents know that I'm everywhere, and I don't really hear that criticism. I hear it from those 45 to 50 people that show up every Monday morning."

"It's the same 40 people that write nasty things on my social media. I can't do anything about that."

And on whether he'd ever attend one of these gatherings, he said it wouldn't be "productive" — because he doesn't intend to "show up and get called names … and basically be a piñata."

That's the job description he's rejecting. Not being assaulted. Not being endangered. Being criticized in public by the people he represents.

He was asked to name one. He couldn't.

The most telling moment in the interview is the simplest one.

Meuser said he spends all his time traveling across the 12-county district and disputed the claim that he avoids public forums. So the reporter asked him to cite a recent public town hall.

He pointed to meetings with veterans, farmers, and chambers of commerce. He pointed to campaign events.

He did not name a single open public forum.

That distinction is the entire argument, and Meuser walked right into it. A meeting with a chamber of commerce is a meeting with a chamber of commerce. A campaign event is full of supporters. Neither one is a room where any constituent — including one who's angry, or scared about their health coverage, or out of work — can stand up and ask a question.

Protest organizers have made exactly this point: issue-specific meetings are not a substitute for a general town hall open to all constituents.

"Mondays Without Meuser" is not 40 people

Meuser's characterization of the protests as a handful of cranks doesn't survive contact with the local reporting.

The weekly demonstrations have been going since March 2025. In March 2026, LebTown covered the 50th consecutive weekly protest, with constituents raising concerns about Iran and ICE.

And in June 2026, protesters didn't gather in one place. They gathered in six counties across the district on the same day, all demanding the same thing.

A group that sustains weekly turnout for more than a year across a 12-county district and coordinates simultaneous actions in six counties is not "the same 40 people that write nasty things on my social media." It's a movement, and Meuser's own district built it because he wouldn't show up.

He does hold telephone town halls. Those are events where staff screen the questions and the congressman can hang up. That's the format he's comfortable with, and it's the format that lets him decide who gets heard.

The math on his fundraising answer

There's a second moment in the interview worth pulling out, because it's checkable.

Meuser was asked about Democrat Rachel Wallace's fundraising. Public filings show Wallace has raised about $698,000 this cycle, with more than 90% of it from individual donors.

Meuser disputed the premise that she'd outraised him:

"I raise probably 10 times what she raises, but I put it to our NRCC. Money won't be a problem."

According to Federal Election Commission data cited in the same article, Meuser's campaign has taken in about $1.9 million this cycle — $890,906 from individual donors and $792,000 from committee contributions.

$1.9 million is not ten times $698,000. It's under three times. He overstated his own advantage by more than triple, in an interview, about numbers that are filed publicly under his own name.

It's a small thing. But it's the same instinct as the town hall answer: say something confident, assume nobody will check.

Who actually pays for this

Skipping town halls isn't a personality quirk. It's how a member of Congress avoids being asked about their votes by the people those votes landed on.

Meuser has represented the 9th District since 2019. In that time he's cast votes on health coverage, food assistance, and taxes that affect every county he drives through. An open town hall is where a constituent gets to say this is what that did to my family and have him answer in public, on the record.

That's not a piñata. That's accountability, and it's the part of the job he was hired to do.

Meuser closed the interview by saying his message to constituents is to "get to the truth," and that he believes "the most informed voters will be Republican voters."

The most informed voters would be the ones who got to ask him questions.

We deserve better.

Source

Reporting by Aishwarya Behl for The Republican-Herald (July 30, 2026), with protest coverage from LebTown. Photo: Aishwarya Behl / The Republican-Herald.