WALL – Armed with handcrafted posters, catchy sing-song chants and undeniable vitriol, hundreds of community activists, workers and voters packed into a union hall on Saturday demanding their congressional representative push back against the Trump administration.
At one point, the packed audience in unison implored U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-Ocean, to "do the right thing." The only problem: Smith, elected to his 23rd term in the House last year, wasn't in the room.
Therein lies the problem, said U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a Democrat.
"If you’re only having comfortable conversations in politics, it means you’re not talking to all the people you need to be talking to,” Kim said. “We don’t agree on every single issue, but that’s why it's important to talk about it.”
The town hall was organized by New Jersey Citizen Action, a nonprofit advocating for racial, social and economic justice. It was deliberately held in the Fourth Congressional District, which Smith has represented since 1981.
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