Town hall questions delivered to congressman Collins

Barbara Burt, co-leader of Indivisible GA 10 and Harold Thompson, chair, Oconee County Democratic Party lead a group of constituents as they deliver questions from the Athens town hall meeting to Congressman Collins’ office.

Voters delivered more than 160 comments and questions to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ Monroe office on Friday morning, after the Congressman declined to attend a standing-room only Town Hall Forum in Athens earlier in the week.

Barbara Burt, co-leader of Indivisible GA 10 in Athens, and Harold Thompson, chair of the Oconee County Democratic Party, led the delegation to Collins’ office.

Nearly 400 citizens of Congressional District 10 attended Tuesday’s Town Hall, submitting more than 160 comments and questions they wanted Collins to address. After Collins refused to meet with his constituents at the forum, a group of organizers and participants from four different towns in Collins’s district carried the questions to Collins’ office in Monroe.

The comments on the forms covered many topics of concern to voters in Congressional District 10. Among them were: the chaos caused by DOGE and its unelected leader, Musk; the safety of Social Security; cuts to Medicaid; attacks on LGBTQ+ rights; layoffs of federal workers; cuts to research grants at Georgia universities; and the unwillingness of Representative Collins to meet with voters and answer their questions.

The Town Hall with Collins was co-sponsored by two Indivisible groups in District 10, IndivisibleGA10.org and Indivisible Boldly Blue, as well as two Democratic County Committees, Athens-Clarke and Oconee. Despite the overflowing attendance at the forum, the participants’ discussion of the issues that brought them to the Town Hall remained serious, orderly, and substantive. Many expressed disappointment that Collins, their representative in Washington, didn’t find it important to attend and hear their concerns.

Organizers said they will continue to encourage Collins to meet with any of his District 10 constituents who wish to talk with him, and not just hand-picked supporters.

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