By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
March 21, 2025
The young woman stepped up to the microphone at the town hall meeting and began reading from a small notebook in which she had written a handful of questions she wanted to ask Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana.
Her inquiries indicated she aligned with the political left, as she asked about the senator’s confirmation votes for President Donald Trump’s controversial nominees, what she saw as his “refusing to protect the legislative branch” and why he was remaining “silent on the current intimidation of the judiciary,” as well as whether he believes in a constitutional right to due process for everyone in the United States.
When she was finished, the woman said, “I would say thank you for your time, but you’re not here.”
Rather than speaking to Young, who has represented the Hoosier State in the U.S. Senate since 2017 and recently won reelection in 2022, the woman was talking to an empty chair.
Indivisible Central Indiana and Hoosiers for Democracy organized a town hall meeting and formally invited Young to meet with his constituents. However, when the senator declined the invitation, the two groups decided to hold the event anyway, encouraging members of the public to come and say what they would have said if Young had been there in person.
Dubbed the “Todd Young empty chair Town Hall,” the event was held Wednesday evening at the Broadway United Methodist Church, 609 E. 29th St., in Indianapolis. Cars quickly filled the parking lot and spilled onto the neighborhood streets as an estimated crowd of 600 turned out to talk to a senator who was not there.
Aaron Hobbs, senior pastor of the church, opened the evening by noting Young’s absence and then jokingly asked the attendees to check under the pews to see if the senator had snuck into the building. The pastor referenced the breezy, unseasonably warm evening, as he told the crowd what he would like to see take place.
“I wish that this wind would blow justice into our city, into our state and into our nation,” Hobbs said. “And maybe if we keep getting together like this, we’ll create enough energy to make that happen.”
A spokesperson for Young confirmed to The Indiana Citizen that the senator had declined the invitation to that town hall.
“Sen. Young regularly meets with Hoosiers in a variety of formats, including attending meetings and events across Indiana, hosting constituent coffees, and holding virtual meetings with Hoosier groups when the Senate is in session,” the spokesperson said. “Additionally, the Senator’s staff meets with individuals and groups in all 92 counties.”
A man named Rick, who said he lived in the Butler Tarkington neighborhood in Indianapolis, arrived at the event wearing a red T-shirt which carried a warning about tariffs. Although he said he always casts a ballot on Election Day, Rick said he does not normally participate in protests or attend meetings with representatives and senators, but came to town hall because he wanted his voice heard – even if only to an empty chair.
When his turn came, Rick stepped up to the microphone and shared his research about the negative impact he said the tariffs President Donald Trump is implementing on imported goods would have on Indiana’s manufacturing and agricultural industries. He concluded his comments by asking what the senator is planning to do to help Hoosiers, before walking away without an answer.
In recent weeks, GOP leadership has been advising Republican representatives and senators to skip open meetings with voters. Reports from across the country note town halls have turned into loud and raucous events, as constituents express their anger and frustration over the policies and actions of President Donald Trump and his adviser, billionaire Elon Musk.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has echoed Trump in blaming the upheaval on “professional protesters” and encouraged members of his caucus to forgo large events and meet with voters in smaller gatherings or telephone town halls. Also, North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, had advised lawmakers to stop hosting in-person gatherings.
One man at the empty-chair rally brought attention to the trend of lawmakers avoiding constituent meet-and-greets and alleging that people are being paid to wreak havoc at those events.
“Would all the paid disruptors stand up,” the man asked, looking into the audience. When no one stood, he threw his arms wide and said, “There’s 600 people here and I don’t see anybody standing up that are paid disruptors.” He then asked Young, in absentia, “What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of democracy?”
Chaotic and confrontational town hall meetings with congressional members are not new. Outraged voters showed up at public forums hosted by their Democratic representatives and senators in 2009 to speak against health care reform, and they returned in 2017, when their Republican congressional members were trying to repeal the product of the health care reform fight, the Affordable Care Act.
Chad Kinsella, an associate professor of political science at Ball State University, believes town halls are no longer a viable way for lawmakers to connect with their constituents. He said people plan and organize through social media and then arrive en masse at town halls to interrupt the event, embarrass the elected official and get mentioned in the news. Not only do the protesters prevent meaningful discussions, but because they tend to be loud and insistent, he said, they also distort the perception of public sentiment, which can lead a politician to mistakenly think their views are aligned with the majority.
“Town hall sounds very nice, it sounds very democratic in the modern day,” Kinsella said, noting the idea is to have a conversation by letting the constituents ask questions and the representative or senator respond with answers. “Unfortunately, I think, in the modern political era, if I were working on campaigns or if I were working for a congressional office, it doesn’t matter (the party) or location … I would actively advise my representative to never do a town hall meeting.”
Kinsella’s stance is colored by his own experience at a town hall when he worked as a congressional staffer in 2005 and 2006 for then Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky. Arriving early for the event, which was held in Falmouth, Kentucky, Kinsella remembered engaging in a “very kind, civil, lovely conversation” with a woman while he set up the venue.
Then, “literally five minutes later,” Kinsella said, the town hall started, the cameras were rolling and the woman “started frothing at the mouth,” expressing her anger over the second Iraq War. He remembered the woman comparing then-President George W. Bush to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and saying Bush should be “strung up.”
Afterwards, Kinsella said he and his colleagues and Davis were so shaken, they decided to never host or participate in another town hall.
“People were there that just said some things that you should never say about anybody, regardless of what political side you’re on,” Kinsella said. “In my opinion, I don’t think anyone before or since that time has ever really deserved something like that … regardless of how unpopular (their actions) or how unpopular they might be.”
The crowd at the empty chair rally in Indianapolis was energetic but respectful and attentive.
In the nearly 100-year-old church sanctuary with stone walls, a cathedral ceiling and stained-glass windows, the mostly white, middle-aged crowd sat shoulder to shoulder in the pews. More people were standing in the back and others were perched in the balconies.
At the front of the altar was a stool with a handwritten sign in block letters that said “Senator Young” that was leaning against the chair’s back. A red necktie was draped over the cushioned seat. A microphone stood beside the “empty chair.”
The event opened with Sheila Kennedy, professor emeritus of law and public policy at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis; Adam Mueller, executive director of the Indiana Justice Project, and Angela Carr Klitzsch, CEO of Women4Change Indiana, each making brief remarks highlighting some of the negative fallout from Trump’s directives.
Then the public comment portion began. For nearly two hours, people walked to the microphone and voiced their frustrations and concerns about the Trump administration’s executive orders and actions. They were angry about the roundup and deportation of immigrants, the war in Gaza, the upheaval caused by Musk, the economic impact of tariffs, the loss of transgender rights, the false and misleading information about vaccines spread by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the firing of federal workers, and the looming cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.
Some reminded the not-present Young of the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Others punctuated their comments by either asking the absent senator, “What are you going to do about it?” or telling him, “Do your job.”
Throughout the evening, the audience boosted the speakers by applauding, cheering, whistling, booing and giving standing ovations. One attendee called out a couple of times, “What do you think, Todd?”
No one spoke in support of what is happening on Capitol Hill and in the White House. However, some did say they liked Sen. Young and appreciated his service in the U.S. Marines and in the U.S. Senate, and a few assured the absent Young that Hoosier voters would “have his back” if he decided to quit going along with the president.
While the town hall with Young devolved into the constituents talking to an empty chair, Kinsella said people can still raise concerns and ask questions of their representatives and senators by reaching out to their congressional offices. Many staff members in those offices, he said, are focused on constituent services and help with a variety of issues from arranging visits to a session of the House or Senate to checking the status of an application for Social Security disability.
Kinsella acknowledged calling and emailing a question to a congressional office is “a bit sanitized,” because people do not get to personally interact with their elected official. Still, he said, constituents can get answers and assistance.
Of the 535 people in the U.S. House of Representatives that represent individuals and families across the country, “the vast majority of them try to be responsive,” Kinsella said. “To some degree, it’s in their best interest to be responsive.”
However, some of the attendees at the empty chair town hall said they had left voicemails and sent messages to Young’s office, but they did not get direct responses to their inquiries. One woman said she expressed her concern about the environment and got a letter from the senator saying how much he liked fishing.
A woman named Peggy of Indianapolis told The Indiana Citizen that she and her friend each mailed Young separate letters supporting the National Institutes of Health and urging against cutting funding to the organization. She said her letter gave a broad overview of the work the government agency does, while her friend’s letter provided more details about the scientific research conducted by the NIH. Both she and her friend, she said, received the same letter from Young’s office in reply.
“Letters don’t work,” Peggy said.
Karen Byrd of Indianapolis said even if elected officials do not attend meetings with voters or respond to messages from constituents, attending town halls, marching in protests and knocking on doors are all important. She painted a grim picture of the health of the country’s democracy, claiming the guardrails that restrained past presidents are no longer in place, but, she said, by coming together, people can push back and protect democracy.
Active in several Democratic and left-leaning political organizations, Byrd said she was not being paid to participate in the empty chair event. Yet, her remarks stirred many in the audience, several of whom told her afterwards that they liked her comments.
“You’re not somebody who is unaware of what’s going on, like some members of the House that have been interviewed recently,” Byrd said to Young’s empty chair. “But in some ways, that worries me more than if you were, because it tells me that your incentives are elsewhere. … It’s concerning to me that somebody who appears to have all their faculties still feels pressured into going along with everything that’s going on.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
