The Daily Populous Monday March 3rd, 2025 day edition
Authored by oregonlive.com and submitted by oregonian

Oregon’s only Republican member of Congress, Rep. Cliff Bentz, stood before a town hall of more than 400 of his constituents in deeply red eastern Oregon and faced a barrage of jeers. Many attendees were upset with the first month of cuts by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, as well as Bentz’s staunch defense of them.

Bentz’s town halls have typically been relatively docile affairs, but not this time. While many 2nd Congressional District constituents who unleashed on the third-term member of Congress at town halls in La Grande, Baker City, Boardman and Pendleton were Democrats, a quieter and less animated portion of the crowds appeared to be worried Republicans.

Emotions are running high because cuts to federal employment, grants and social welfare programs threaten to run deep in rural Oregon. Compared to Oregon’s population centers, incomes are lower in eastern and southern parts of the state, where federal dollars have an outsized impact. And with President Donald Trump back in office and shaking up government like never before, some loyal Republicans living in Trump strongholds are feeling shell shocked.

Turnout to question Bentz at a series of recent town halls was as much as five times the usual. “You’re just rolling over and you’re OK with that?” and “You should be ashamed!” yelled people at a Feb. 19 La Grande gathering. Howls of protest were so frequent that the otherwise unflappable lawmaker reached a breaking point.

“If you just came here to yell, I can leave — do you want me to do that?” Bentz asked the crowd.

Later, in another apparent attempt to calm attendees, Bentz reminded them that at least he was willing to show up and take the heat. “I’ll just say many of my (Republican) colleagues are not doing town halls,” he added.

Bentz is one of a league of Republican representatives across the nation who received a verbal lashing in their overwhelmingly conservative districts during their first town halls since Trump retook office.

Trump’s efforts to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget while instituting $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the rich have been supported by the majority-Republican Congress and significant numbers of Republican voters who believe the cutting is necessary.

But the way Trump is pushing for change has left GOP lawmakers torn between their instincts to protect their constituents and their loyalty to the president. It’s also drawn criticism from the left that Trump’s actions ignore the Constitution, which says the power of the purse lies with Congress.

The end result has left many rural Oregonians unsettled over the turmoil that’s unfolding in their communities.

Cows walk in a pasture Prineville. Rural Oregon depends more heavily than other parts of the state on federal employment to keep the economy and local services humming. (Haley Nelson / For The Oregonian)(Photo credit: Haley Nelson / For The Oregonian)

More so than in Portland, Corvallis, Hood River and other Democratic strongholds, residents in Bentz’s vast rural Oregon district depend on Medicaid and food assistance, money to prevent and battle wildfires, programs to boost farmers through purchasing wheat for poor countries and grants to upgrade infrastructure like high-speed internet coverage across vast expanses.

Officials also have said as many as 10% of the state’s nearly 30,000 federal employees already have received termination notices. That includes Forest Service workers, Veterans Affairs staffers, Bureau of Land Management managers, scientists across multiple agencies and Bonneville Power Administration employees, who ensure that the region’s power grid doesn’t fail.

And those cullings could have greater consequences on rural Oregon, where good-paying jobs are tough to come by. An Oregon Employment Department report released Wednesday shows federal employment pays significantly more than the average salary in almost every rural county in the state. In Wasco County, the average federal worker makes $106,000 a year, double the average wage and the largest difference in the state.

The city council and mayor of the tiny Gilliam County town of Condon, three hours east of Portland, penned a letter on Feb. 20 to members of Congress outlining multiple concerns about the potential loss of federal jobs and grant money.

“I see it as a double-edged sword,” Mayor Dustan Hall, a Republican who voted for Trump, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “We all want accountability. Where are our tax dollars going? Is this just an open checkbook?” … But at the same time, speaking for Condon, we’re a small rural geographical area that is dependent on grants.”

Hall said potential cuts could ravage his 700-resident town, in a county where Trump defeated Democratic opponent Kamala Harris by a more than two-to-one margin. City leaders are anxious about all that is on the line, including jobs at the local U.S. Department of Agriculture office that supports area farmers and the Head Start program for preschoolers from low-income families.

Already, Hall said, the city learned in early February that a $137,000 federal grant that the local fire district secured last August has been frozen. The grant is supposed to pay for a large grass-and-brush mower that would create burn-resistant fire lines to help prevent the city from going up in flames.

“I speak for all the rural areas — wildfires in Oregon have just been problematic these past few years,” Hall said. “And I fear it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.”

Oregon suffered the worst wildfire season in modern state history last year, when six mega fires of more than 100,000 acres destroyed forests, ranches, livestock and a small number of homes and structures alike. All were in rural Oregon.

The Rail Ridge Fire south of Dayville in Grant County scorched more than 135,000 acres.Grant County Emergency Management

Hall is the rare Trump voter willing to publicly express any degree of concern.

Much more common is a rural registered Republican who told The Oregonian/OregonLive, her voice shaking in anger, that she feels betrayed by Congress’ willingness to go along with the Trump administration’s looming cuts. The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, said she worries Trump’s reductions will devastate a swath of low-income people in her county, Malheur. It has the second-lowest median household income in the state, at about $50,000, and Trump sailed to victory there with 70% of the vote.

Her views, she said, would not go over well if widely known.

“We’re a small town,” the woman said. “Everybody knows everybody. I just want to keep me as safe as possible. I know that sounds so bad. But it’s where I live.”

Rural Democrats, however, are speaking out with new energy since they fell into a stunned silence after the November election, said Terrie Martin, a Medford resident and one of the leaders of the progressive activist group Oregon District 2 Indivisible.

Martin said her group held a meeting for new members in left-leaning Ashland in January, around the time of Trump’s inauguration, and 70 people attended. One month later, the group held another new membership meeting 20 minutes away in right-leaning Medford and 250 showed.

“At this one, their hair was on fire,” Martin said of new members who have been jolted into action by Trump’s executive orders and Musk’s leadership of DOGE. Interest, Martin said, “has exploded.”

During a “Not My President” President’s Day protest in Medford organized by the group 50501 and heavily attended by District 2 Indivisible members, the crowd of more than 150 waved signs that read “Dump Trump” and “Elon Musk is a terrible president.” They marched to Bentz’s southern Oregon district office with a life-sized cardboard cutout of him plastered in sticky notes with similar messages. A picture they posted to Facebook made the national TV news.

Scott Cooper, a lifelong Republican and head of the nonprofit NeighborImpact assisting 60,000 poor or working class residents across three counties in central Oregon, notes that nearly three-quarters of the voters in the county he lives in, Crook, voted for Trump. That includes many of the people his nonprofit helps with child care, food, utility bills and weatherizing homes, he said.

But he said the Trump administration’s and Congress’ plans to cut trillions could cast the people that NeighborImpact helps into even more dire circumstances.

“If they get a small savings on their taxes, it won’t offset Mom no longer having a payor for her assisted living facility or losing your health care or losing your ability to access a food bank,” Cooper said.

Prineville, the county seat of 27,000-resident Crook County in central Oregon, viewed from the Ochoco View Point on Friday. (Haley Nelson / For The Oregonian)(Photo credit: Haley Nelson / For The Oregonian)

He said many of the area’s rural residents don’t believe the reductions could harm them. But he is worried enough that he’s flying to Washington, D.C., Sunday to lobby members of Congress.

“Those decisions are going to target the working class, which is hurting and very angry,” Cooper said. “And we’re about to make them hurt more and probably make them angrier.”

Another Republican and resident of Prineville, Mayor Jason Beebe, said concerns over deep and damaging cuts to rural Oregonians that he’s heard so far have been overblown. Beebe said although he’s privately heard from a few Republicans who are worried about Musk’s job slashing or potential cuts to Medicaid or Medicare, he believes Democrats have been using “scare tactics” that push constituents to complain to the representatives and senators at town halls and other venues.

“I hate the fact that partisan politics pits Americans against each other,” Beebe said. “You have one side saying ‘this’ and the other side saying ‘no.’ And then we don’t know the truth until months later.”

For instance, Beebe, a disabled veteran who served in Iraq, said he has heard gloom and doom about cuts to Veterans Affairs’ staffing. But so far, his benefits have been untouched.

Prineville Mayor Jason Beebe, seen here in his city's downtown, says he was among the 73% of Crook County voters who ushered President Donald Trump into office last fall. Though he's heard from a few Republicans concerned about possible cuts, Beebe says “I’m one of those people who voted for this. I voted to audit the government."(Haley Nelson / For The Oregonian)

He said Oregonians need to give the Trump administration and Musk time to right the course, and if mistakes are made along the way, they will be corrected. He welcomes the purse-tightening as a necessity.

“As a local mayor, I have to watch my budget at home and make sure I don’t go over budget,” said Beebe, who ran against Bentz in the 2024 congressional primary but lost. “I think our federal government should do the same thing.”

Even if the cutting does hit home, Sherman County wheat farmer Rob Simantel said he’s willing to take the hit. Simantel, a Republican, said tens of thousands of dollars worth of federal grants for sustainable farming practices that he receives each year are in jeopardy under the Trump administration’s funding freezes. But he said he has faith that Trump will make the country leaner and the economy healthier. He believes wheat prices, too, will increase again, as they did during Trump’s first administration.

“It may hurt us here in the next year or so, but I think in the long run a lot of the programs will come back and we’ll be stronger.”

If Trump fails, Oregonians and voters nationwide can vote his Republican supporters in Congress down and elect a Democratic president with a completely different approach, Simantel notes.

“He’s trying to do something, so see what he does — at least give him a little bit of time,” Simantel said. “Somebody has got to be the bad guy and turn it all around.”

— Aimee Green is covering the Oregon Legislature this session. Reach her at 503-294-5119 or agreen@oregonian.com or on Bluesky.

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Lumpy-Succotash-9236 on March 2nd, 2025 at 22:48 UTC »

They're gonna shut down every town hall type meeting in America soon enough I would guess.

TheDamDog on March 2nd, 2025 at 22:43 UTC »

Bet you a dollar he screams at his interns if his coffee isn't exactly how he likes it.

twirlingmypubes on March 2nd, 2025 at 22:38 UTC »

So much for democracy