By Calvin Pynn, contributor
Several dozen people picketed in downtown Harrisonburg Sunday afternoon to call on U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, the four-term congressman who represents the Valley, to hold a public town hall meeting.
Cline was in Harrisonburg on Sunday to meet with the African Community of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. The event wasn’t open to the press. It had been scheduled a couple of months earlier, according to an attendee who declined to give their name, but it wasn’t announced publicly until Saturday night in a Facebook post.
Sunday’s protest was the latest demonstration as frustration has grown among some of Cline’s constituents regarding what they say is lack of communication and accessibility.
Constituents from Harrisonburg and Rockingham County stood outside The Offices at 31 N. Federal as they awaited Congressman’s arrival. Many held signs chastising Cline’s lack of communication and his endorsement of Trump’s policies, including mass firings of federal workers and actions of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which billionaire businessman Elon Musk has helped form.
As members of the African Community arrived for the meeting, protesters encouraged them to “ask hard questions” in their dialogue with Cline, and to remind him to meet with other members of his constituency.
When Cline arrived at the meeting, he was met with a barrage of criticisms about the Trump administration’s actions and questions about his scarce availability.
“I’m happy to meet with anyone at any time,” Cline said as he was confronted by the protesters.
The response was met with disdain, as they told Cline that he specifically needs to hold a town hall meeting.
“I just had a town hall in Harrisonburg two months ago, I missed you there!” Cline responded in exasperation before making his way inside for the meeting.
Cline has not held any town halls in Harrisonburg in the last two months. However, he might have been referring to the most recent “Coffee with a Congressman” meeting in the city, which Cline held at an IHOP restaurant in November following the election.
Neither Cline nor his office have responded to The Citizen’s request for comment regarding Sunday’s event.
Jayne Docherty, a Harrisonburg resident who organized Sunday’s gathering, said she has been regularly contacting Cline’s offices to no avail.
“I call his Washington office and leave a message a couple of times a week, but he’s absolutely not taking anything from constituents unless he knows that they already agree with him,” Docherty said.
Docherty said Cline has been available to speak with constituents only on an appointment basis, but so far, that route hasn’t worked either.
“His offices are now locked, and you have to make an appointment, and he’s very clear that not all requests for appointments will be honored,” Docherty said.
The Daily News-Record reported that more than 100 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County residents gathered outside of Cline’s downtown Harrisonburg office last week to protest his support of President Donald Trump’s policies. Similar demonstrations popped up outside of Cline’s other offices across the 6th Congressional District, which stretches from Roanoke along the Virginia-West Virginia border north past Winchester.
Docherty attended last week’s protest outside of Cline’s Harrisonburg office, during which she said none of his staff addressed residents.
“The doors were locked. Nobody could get in,” she said. “Some people left their letters in his mailbox, that was it. We just want to talk to our Congressman”
Docherty said the goal of Sunday’s gathering was to call for an opportunity to talk with their elected representative, including through a town-hall style meeting.
Typically, lawmakers hold town hall meetings in their districts during intermittent work periods between congressional sessions. Over the last month, some of Cline’s Republican colleagues in the U.S. House have faced outrage from their constituents upset about Trump’s actions.
That ire was on display at an event at the Waynesboro Public Library organized by Cline’s staff last month. WHSV reported that residents who showed up to voice their concerns were upset with Cline’s absence from the meeting, as well as the limited engagement in which staffers only spoke with five people at a time. The congressman’s staff reportedly left the event early following boos from the audience. Ken Mitchell, a Democrat who ran against Cline in the 2024 election, then took over the meeting and answered questions.
Cline’s office later issued a statement on Facebook clarifying that the Waynesboro event was not a town hall meeting and the congressman had not been scheduled to attend.
“This was not a town hall and was never advertised as one,” Cline’s Facebook post said. “Today, the session was hijacked by partisan activists, including my last two Democrat opponents, one of whom actually made a speech to the crowd. The staffers on site, who are residents of the Sixth District, were subjected to what amounted to a Democratic campaign rally, which interfered with constituents who were there for actual issues, like help with problems with the IRS, which they had hoped would be addressed by my staff — which is the real purpose of these office hours.”
“The fact is that people support what President Trump is doing to reduce waste in the government and so do I,” Cline’s post added.
Cline attracted negative attention earlier that week when Front Royal resident Jeanne Stapf published a Facebook post alleging that a staffer at Cline’s Winchester office dismissed her request for a town hall meeting with an obscenity. His office has not commented on that matter.
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