ST. LOUIS • Activists held a town hall meeting downtown Wednesday evening hoping Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., would attend to answer their questions about the administration of President Donald Trump and policies affecting the state.
Blunt was invited but did not attend. His office said he was in Jefferson City and Columbia earlier in the day meeting with constituents and attending events.
In February, the left-leaning group Indivisible St. Louis organized a rally outside Blunt’s Clayton office demanding that he, like many of his GOP colleagues in Congress, hold a town hall meeting to address his support for Trump and GOP plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Blunt has not hosted a town hall. His office did not say if or when he planned to.
Group organizers said they contacted Blunt’s Clayton and Washington offices requesting he attend Wednesday’s event.
His spokeswoman said the office would announce if he had any “upcoming open events.”
In Blunt’s absence, the crowd estimated by an organizer at 200 at Wednesday’s event, with miniature American flags and copies of the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” in hand, directed questions on health care, foreign policy, gun laws and environmental policy to a headless mannequin bust outfitted with a suit, tie and Blunt name tag at the front of the room.
Many questions were followed by a recording of cricket noises.
To fill the void, the group appointed a “virtual Blunt,” someone using a smartphone to search for Blunt’s responses in the past on similar topics.
People affixed other questions on sticky notes to the rear end of an elephant cutout. Organizers said they plan to send the cut-out to Blunt’s office.
Event co-organizer Scott Wilson acknowledged that the setup was “poking fun” but said the concerns were serious.
“Sen. Blunt has an obligation to engage with constituents,” Wilson said.
Sen. Claire McCaskill last week held eight town hall meetings in different locations across Missouri, many of them in places that showed strong support for Trump.
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