To the applause of several hundred Orange County voters, Rep. Robert Garcia said Saturday it was more important than ever to mobilize against Republican priorities to slash federal funding to the benefit of billionaires.
It was a typical message coming from Garcia, a Long Beach Democrat who frequently lambasts conservatives in House committees. Minutes later, however, he directed his criticisms inward, toward the Democratic Party.
“When I first came into office I came with high hopes,” Garcia said. “I have never been more disappointed in the Democratic Party than right now.”
This was the second of Garcia’s two recent town halls — held in Long Beach on Friday and in Orange on Saturday — where he walked a fine line between the expected criticisms of the Trump Administration’s cuts to federal agencies and a critical assessment of the Democratic Party.
In hosting the gatherings, Garcia joined a growing number of Democrats who are holding forums after Republican leadership — who faced mounting criticism over the Trump Administration’s cuts to federal programs — warned their House members earlier this month to avoid town halls or risk confrontations with angry voters.
At his events, Garcia spoke to overwhelmingly friendly audiences who were invited through either the congressman’s email list or through the Democratic Party of Orange County, according to organizers, who said they used invitations to manage the limited seating, which filled up quickly.
Garcia, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and House DOGE Subcommittee, said he has recently been flooded with inquiries from constituents about Elon Musk, and concerns about cuts to the federal workforce.
And at the town halls, he ticked off his fears: that misinformed podcasts would replace public media, that Long Beach and Orange County schools would go without federal funding, that Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency would trade out Medicare and Social Security for massive tax cuts.
Garcia also did not shy from criticisms of what he sees as a weakness within the Democratic Party. Anger toward Democrats has intensified since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill to avert a government shutdown, prompting questions about whether party leadership is adequately pushing back.
“The Republican Party is a distorted, contorted version of its previous self. It doesn’t exist anymore. And people like Chuck Schumer, who have already rolled over and capitulated, that doesn’t work,” said Orange County resident Mark Rees, a former Republican who attended Saturday’s town hall
In Garcia’s view, bipartisanship in the era of Trump is obsolete: Any need to put politeness and respect before politics is outdated. In today’s scheme, he said, leaders need to “match the energy” of the moment, so as not to be taken advantage of by opponents and risk further alienating voters.
“We did not prepare for this moment, and we are not meeting the moment in the way people are demanding of us, not just as a Congress, but as a guardian and as a country,” Garcia said. “So I agree with you that huge mistakes have been made, in my opinion, on behalf of the folks within our party, our Senate and Congress.”
One criticism in particular is that the party “largely ignored” California’s 40th Congressional District, held by Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, in the November 2024 election.
Kim won the seat with 55.3% of the vote over Democratic challenger Joe Kerr.
Garcia said he came to Kim’s district to host a town hall because “It’s important that she knows people are suffering and people are scared.”
Republicans hit back by calling Garcia’s event a “sham” stacked “with handpicked supporters to mask the deep discontent with his party’s radical agenda,” according to a statement from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Garcia’s weekend of town halls reflects the tone and direction held by fellow Democrats in California and nationwide, who have also held a number of gatherings in attempts to make inroads with frustrated voters, vent their own anger with the party and explain that — despite the Republicans controlling the House, the Senate and the White House — there are things people can do to fight back.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of Santa Clara held several town halls in three California districts — California’s 22nd, 40th and 41st — held by Republican representatives Ken Calvert, Young Kim and David Valadao. Similar tactics are being used by Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York.
Each, including Garcia, advocated for people to tap into anger over Trump, Musk and DOGE to help their party retake the House in the 2026 midterm elections, especially in swing districts like Bakersfield and Anaheim Hills.
But the party must also overcome its own downcast image — just 29% of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, according to a CNN poll.
How that image is turned around, according to Long Beach resident Daniel Dudak, is by coming together under a cohesive message.
“We have to let go of all our internal squabbles,” he said. “That’s one of the things that’s killed us is that we have all these internal squabbles, and we’ll always have that one of the things that have made the Republican Party so successful is their ability to come together with a common message. We need to do that too.”
You can watch a recording of the Long Beach town hall here.