The stage is set for two at the Kentucky theater. On the right side is former Lexington Vice Mayor Steve Kay, the Town Hall’s moderator. On the left side is a chair, a microphone, and a large poster with the words “Reserved for Congressman Andy Barr.”
Nearly every spot in the 800-seat theater was occupied, with dozens more standing around the perimeter. Speakers line up for their turn at the microphone. Each one gets three minutes to address a question to the empty chair. A recurring theme was Barr’s support for DOGE and of Elon Musk’s role as an unelected advisor to the President - something Barr addressed earlier in the week at Commerce Lexington’s Public Policy luncheon.
“The authority that Musk has is the same as any other advisor to a president,” said Barr. “We've had kitchen cabinets and advisors to presidents who are unelected since the days of Andrew Jackson. And if you consider the fact that DOGE is overseeing hundreds and thousands of unelected officials in the executive branch, it's very rich to criticize the fact that he's unelected.”
One constituent, Kim Edwards, was diagnosed with cancer two and a half years ago.
“But I was lucky for several reasons,” said Edwards. “I caught it early, the kind of cancer I had was curable, and I benefited from decades of medical research, including new treatments that had not been available just a few years before.”
Edwards received life-saving care at UK’s Markey Cancer Center but says it wouldn’t have been possible without federally funded research, which has been slashed in the first two months of President Trump’s second term. In February, Trump froze cancer research funding. Though he has since partially reversed course, the disruptions delayed critical studies, halted clinical trials and treatments, and led to layoffs. Last week, his administration imposed additional funding cuts on the NIH.
“Congressman Barr, you had a chance to stop this, but you did not,” said Edwards. “Last week, you voted for the continuing resolution, which included a 57% cut to congressionally directed medical research programs, most of which goes to cancer research. I don't get it, Congressman Barr. How does this help Kentucky? How does this help your constituents?”
Other speakers posed questions to Barr about deportations, income inequality, and the dismantling of the Department of Education.
Local leaders, too, brought questions.
District 45 Representative Adam Moore
“I was there at your event with Commerce Lex earlier this week, in which you said that we should trust Elon Musk because you spoke to him face-to-face. Well, my trust doesn't quite go that far, Congressman Barr. At a time when we are seeing wanton cuts to our federal employees, 6,000 of which, in Kentucky, work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which serves Kentucky veterans like myself. I am a veteran, and I get my care at our local VA center here in Lexington. I want to know, Congressman Barr, what are you going to do to protect those federal employees who work for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the many more veterans in the state of Kentucky who are reliant on that necessary care?”
District 76 Representative Anne Gay Donworth
“I’m coming off my very first term in Frankfort, which was a really hard one. We had a lot of times when people of the majority party, the Kentucky GOP, did not listen to a word the minority party - or anyone from Lexington or Louisville - had to say about really important issues. As I'm recovering from that, I'm also trying to figure out how we are going to establish a state budget next year, in the 26-27 year, when 40% of the state's budget comes from federal pass-through dollars. How are we as a state legislature supposed to fund important things in the state of Kentucky like our public schools, like our colleges and universities, transportation, and healthcare? All of these things are through federal pass-through dollars and they benefit all of the constituents that you and I both serve. So how do we come to an agreement? How do we reach a budget to make all of these things happen, and if you don't get those federal funding, which programs do you suggest that we cut?”
Lexington Councilwoman Emma Curtis
“I’m the councilwoman representing Lexington’s 4th District and about 30,000 of the same constituents that you represent. We spoke this past week at the Commerce Lexington event that you did decide to attend here in Lexington. We spoke about the need for affordable housing and for infrastructure improvements that benefit all of our citizens here in central Kentucky. After we spoke, you got up on stage to defend tariffs, to defend a tax, functionally, on your constituents that will make projects like the ones we discussed that our community desperately needs more difficult, more expensive, and ultimately less feasible. At the same time, you stood on stage and defended Elon Musk - an unelected billionaire - gutting the programs that keep our shared constituents safe, healthy, and housed. My question for you, Congressman Barr is, having taken a very similar oath of office to the one that I took to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, how can you justify giving somebody like Elon Musk carte blanche to gut the programs that keep your constituents safe, happy, healthy, and fulfilled?”
Lexington Vice Mayor Dan Wu
“I’m here today, Congressman Barr, because I am your constituent and you are my constituent. The city of Lexington receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funding that affects everything from public safety to affordable housing to transportation and infrastructure. As a local elected leader… I am asking you to protect that funding so that we may better serve our people. And I think I speak for my colleagues: let the elected leaders of Lexington decide what is best for our people. Protect our funding and let us do our work. Thank you.”
This event was organized by the cross-partisan grassroots group “Gathering for Democracy”. The group’s leaders say they attempted to schedule a date for a live, in-person town hall with Barr, but had no luck. At the luncheon, Barr said he didn’t find events like these to be productive.
“I found that in the first Trump administration, these live in-person, massively-attended town halls were shouting contests where people were really not respectful and were not listening to one another,” said Barr.
Judith Humble is a member of Gathering for Democracy’s organizing committee. She says sharing powerful stories face-to-face matters.
“We worked very hard to establish a peaceful event,” said Humble. “What we wanted to demonstrate is that we're not a bunch of shouters, we're not paid protesters, we're constituents. And we really want to have dialogue with our representative, and we want to do that respectfully.“
Barr will be holding a tele-town hall Monday night.
“We're going to reach 75,000 of our constituents,” said Barr. “Anyone can listen in, participate in that. And in those formats, using that technology, there's no shouting over one another. There's a respectful exchange of differences of opinion, and that's good and that's healthy in our democracy.”