ROCKPORT, Maine — The question most critical of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree during her Sunday town hall related to the issue President Donald Trump is trying to punish Maine over.
Brittany Young of South Thomaston, who said she has two daughters and is concerned about a potential loss of education funding, asked Pingree why she opposed a Republican-backed bill seeking to ban transgender female athletes from competing in sports aligned with their gender identity.
The woman signaled support for the bill and said she was asking the question on behalf of a friend who could not attend the Sunday afternoon forum at Camden Hills Regional High School.
In a nod to Maine’s tight-knit politics, Pingree noted she knows the mother of that friend. But then she said the legislation lacked a “nuanced or thoughtful approach.” The Democrat from Maine’s liberal 1st District called Trump’s targeting of transgender people and Maine unfair before most in the friendly crowd of more than 600 people gave her a loud round of applause.
Sunday’s event was the first in-person town hall Pingree and any member of Maine’s congressional delegation held in years. Like others around the country in recent weeks, it revealed plenty of frustration with Trump and his actions in a Democratic state but gave reminders of the limited power Pingree and her party have in Congress.
The president’s politics are hitting home in Maine, which is seven weeks into a federal pressure campaign aimed at overturning the state’s policies allowing transgender girls to compete in girls sports. It began with a verbal exchange between Trump and Gov. Janet Mills in February, and the federal government is now seeking to cut Maine’s federal education funding.
Pingree scheduled back-to-back town halls, with Sunday’s event in Rockport at the northeastern edge of the 1st District and Monday’s forum in Westbrook to cover the Portland area. Her office asked news outlets to not share the exact venue locations for “security purposes.” The congresswoman said that advice came from a U.S. Capitol security team and colleagues.
Nearly all of the 16 questions or comments from Sunday’s audience included criticism of Trump administration actions, touching on everything from energy to Israel, Social Security and Trump defying court orders. Pingree was challenged by one constituent asking about offshore wind, who reminded her “not all of your constituents are Democrats.”
In a Friday phone interview, Pingree said one reason she wanted to hold town halls is because she actually has had to learn from constituents about what is happening to their federal employment or nonprofit funding, while not receiving updates from federal officials.
Pingree, a House Appropriations Committee member, said Trump has no “legal grounds” in his fight with Maine and that she believes he is doing “something every day or twice each day” that harms the country. While Democrats are locked out of power in Congress, Pingree said town halls at least let her tell constituents how she and her colleagues are supporting litigation or legislation to push back on Trump, Elon Musk or Republican-backed tax breaks that could force Medicaid cuts.
Maine’s three other members of Congress — Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District — have largely dismissed calls to hold in-person town halls by arguing they interact with and hear from constituents in different ways.
Those explanations have not pleased progressive groups that have staged “empty chair” town halls in March for Golden and Collins. Nationally, the GOP has advised its lawmakers to avoid town halls, with a few members who have held them in recent weeks facing angry crowds that brought up Musk and his sweeping cost-cutting efforts.
Pingree received credit for holding town halls from an unlikely source: Adrienne Bennett, who was former Gov. Paul LePage’s press secretary during the Republican’s two terms in charge of Maine. LePage held numerous town halls while in office that sometimes created “a bit of chaos,” Bennett acknowledged in a Friday interview, but she called it a basic duty for public officials.
“You can’t just leave people hanging, because then they know you’re ignoring them,” Bennett, who ran in the Republican 2nd Congressional District primary in 2020 and now works in real estate, said.
Pingree declined in her interview to criticize Golden, Collins and King for not holding in-person town halls, adding she wants to hold more. Near the end of Sunday’s forum, a woman asked, “How are we going to win in 2026?”
The congresswoman didn’t single out any of her Democratic colleagues. Instead, she alluded to Republican peers with a comment that received another big round of applause.
“They need to get a spine,” she said.
