Republican Rep. Mark Alford addresses attendees at a the town corridor, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, in Bolivar, Mo.
AP Picture/Charlie Riedel)/AP
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AP Picture/Charlie Riedel)/AP
BOLIVAR, Mo. — A crowd of about 50 persons are already seated with omelets and biscuits and gravy at a diner in Nevada, Mo., when GOP Rep. Mark Alford walks in. He smiles as he acknowledges two constituents from a the town corridor previous within the day who don’t seem to be his largest lovers.
“Hello, you guys are my roadies!” he mentioned as he stopped by means of their desk to shake their arms.
August is when Congress trades the swampy D.C. summer season with time again house. It is normally when lawmakers host the town halls, boards that experience grow to be more and more much less fashionable with Republican individuals.
However Alford is bucking that development, web hosting now not one, however 15 the town halls over 4 days.
“I really like interacting with other people,” the previous broadcast information journalist instructed NPR after day one among his excursion wrapped Monday. “I in reality like arguing with other people, which I have roughly needed to average slightly bit — now not be argumentative however attempt to get what anyone’s pronouncing.”
Nonetheless, he admitted some apprehension about how his the town corridor excursion would move.
“I used to be slightly bit apprehensive and frightened about what it will be like as a result of I had observed the video of Mike Flood,” he mentioned, nodding to his Nebraska colleague’s raucous the town corridor previous this month.
And whilst there have been some heated moments, they had been a some distance cry from Flood’s enjoy or the contentious crowd Alford himself confronted in February.
He mentioned he treats those occasions as listening classes. On Monday, they ranged from a forestall at an American Legion submit to an ice cream parlor after which a extra formal the town corridor at Southwest Baptist College.
“That is why we get elected each two years — that we are within the district, that we are taking the cruel questions, and perhaps we are converting the way in which we expect to replicate the attitudes and the need of the constituents who despatched us there,” he mentioned.
He talked to constituents about his paintings at the Small Trade and Appropriations committees and spoke back questions in regards to the tax and spending invoice Congress handed this summer season. Alford voted for the invoice and mentioned he tries to check with it as H.R. 1 “as a result of I would like other people to hear what I am pronouncing, and after they pay attention ‘one large, gorgeous invoice’, they forestall listening.”
“It will have averted the most important tax building up in U.S. historical past,” he instructed constituents, whilst acknowledging a difficult political truth. “It is roughly laborious to sing the praises of one thing that may have took place however did not occur as a result of we did one thing.”
When anger did bubble up over cuts to the Medicaid program and President Trump himself, Alford deescalated, thanking attendees by means of identify for his or her “hobby.”
“If you are right here, particularly if you do not believe me, thanks for coming,” he mentioned in Bolivar to a crowd of about 100, who had been flippantly break up by means of a display of arms in whether or not they supported Trump or Kamala Harris. “I wish to know deep down in my middle what I consider and why I consider it, and also you difficult me this night goes to lend a hand me refine the ones commitments, values and the ones ideals.”
Constituents navigating Trump’s new management
Whilst nationwide politics is rarely some distance away, those smaller occasions permit constituents to invite direct questions on explicit problems they are going through.
Jeff Droz, who owns a solar power corporate, instructed Alford his well being and trade is struggling as a result of the White Space halting investment for in the past authorized initiatives. Droz purchased $100,000 of sun apparatus after you have investment authorized for a USDA venture, however mentioned it is sitting within the store after he used to be instructed the management hit pause.
Rep. Mark Alford highlights constituent products and services as he meets with veterans at an American Legion match in Wealthy Hill, Mo., as a part of his August the town corridor excursion sequence.
Barbara Sprunt, NPR
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Barbara Sprunt, NPR
“I am sorry that has took place to you – that is flawed,” Alford mentioned. “Our team of workers will paintings with you individually to check out to get this cash and to check out to get some solutions at a minimal for you since you deserve that.”
Jeff Carneal, an Air Drive veteran, instructed Alford how the hiring freeze on the VA Health facility affected his care on the Kansas Town VA.
“That left me, and masses of others that make the most of the spinal twine and mind damage unit, with out care. That is unacceptable,” he mentioned.
Carneal is an unbiased and has voted for Alford previously.
“My worry is that Mr. Alford let Donald Trump and Elon Musk move in there with a sledgehammer and take out investment,” he mentioned in an interview, including he fears additional cuts.
“The VA is doing medical trials on a principally a jumper cord, so I would possibly get talent again. I could possibly stroll,” he mentioned. “Neatly, I am scared that they are going to reduce extra investment and that would possibly not get funded as a result of [Health and Human Services Secretary] Bobby Kennedy. I am hoping Mr. Alford will move to Kennedy and say, depart issues on my own, let’s put extra money into medical analysis.”
He desires to peer Alford get up to Trump and what he calls government overreach.
“[Alford] turns out really nice. I love him,” he mentioned. “I am nonetheless deciding [on next year’s election]. If issues alternate, sure, I will be able to vote for him. If he stands as much as Donald Trump.”
The topic of status as much as Trump continued during town halls.
“You practice Trump like he is Jesus,” anyone shouted on the first forestall.
Whilst Alford every now and then praised Trump for his management, he driven again on the thought he has sway over the president.
“I do not have his quantity in my telephone,” he mentioned. “I do not have an in depth non-public courting” with Trump.
Nationwide guard in D.C. best of thoughts
A space the place Alford opened the door to disagreeing with the president is whether or not the Nationwide Guard must be deployed to different towns, within the wake of being despatched to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump has threatened to deploy the pressure to different blue towns, together with Baltimore and Chicago.
Alford mentioned he supported the D.C. and Los Angeles deployments (“ICE brokers had been in concern in their lives and federal structures had been being focused”) however questions sending them to different towns.
“I am a large believer in states’ rights and native keep an eye on and native authority,” he mentioned. “However I am additionally a believer in making The us protected once more.”
Max Reynolds, 72, attended an match in Bolivar and mentioned he is nervous blue towns in Missouri are subsequent, and desires Alford to publicly say he is adverse.
“The army has no trade being armed within the towns, duration. Now not even shut,” he mentioned in an interview. “Did not [Trump] have his friends come to Washington, D.C.? If he is nervous about crime in D.C., the place used to be he once they had been tearing the hell out of the Capitol?”
Possible redistricting hovers over the entirety
Alford’s west-central district is regarded as a protected GOP seat.
Simply how protected is determined by whether or not the state’s governor and legislature make a decision to pursue mid-decade redistricting, following Trump asking Texas Republicans to attract 5 extra congressional seats for the GOP forward of the 2026 midterm elections. That is brought about leaders in a minimum of seven different states to sign a willingness to regulate their maps as neatly.
Darwina Stewart and Carla Berg attend Rep. Alford’s the town corridor in Bolivar, Mo., on Monday evening. They mentioned they are taken with a possible redistricting effort of their state that would prefer Republicans.
Barbara Sprunt, NPR
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Barbara Sprunt, NPR
Will have to state lawmakers redraw Missouri’s congressional districts, it is most probably the GOP’s energy within the fourth district can be diluted. New maps would most probably goal Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Makes an attempt to remake the district right into a GOP-leaning seat may just come on the expense of constructing Alford’s district extra aggressive.
For his section, Alford mentioned he is staying out of the redistricting struggle.
However his constituents on both sides are involved. Republicans do not wish to see the stronghold reduced and Democrats do not wish to possibility shedding the few Democratic seats they have got.
“Since Missouri already has this sort of restricted collection of blue districts, the truth that they wish to flip the ones few into further purple districts is solely unfair,” Darwina Stewart instructed NPR in Bolivar.
Her good friend Carla Berg agreed.
“It is no other than when [Trump] known as Georgia and mentioned, to find me 11,500 votes or regardless of the quantity used to be. I imply, it is simply as blatant — it is a energy take hold of,” she mentioned, referencing Trump’s 2021 name with Georgia’s Republican secretary of state difficult he “to find” sufficient votes to overturn the state’s election outcome.
