DAVENPORT, Iowa AP - Hundreds of people cheered Sen. Ruben Gallego at a town hall meeting in eastern Iowa Saturday as the first-term Arizona Democrat assailed the massive, Republican-backed tax bill signed by President Donald Trump as likely to make "America poorer and sicker."
Gallego's upbeat event struck the opposite tone from Rep. Mike Flood's town hall meeting earlier in the week, when an even bigger crowd jeered the Nebraska Republican for most of a 90-minute event in his state to promote the bill.
Democrats, searching for months after last year's election defeat for footing in opposing the aggressive tone struck by Trump in his second term in the White House, have gone on the offensive this month, still united in their frustration with Trump but suddenly energized in full-throated opposition to his signature legislation.
"I think this bill is helping Democrats see clearly what's at stake with the future of protections for so many regular Americans," said Pete Wernimont of Waterloo, who drove 140 miles 225 kilometers to see Gallego. "I just hope they are there when it really matters a year from now."
While some Republicans in safe Republican districts are braving crowds to sell Trump's law, most in Congress are heeding GOP leaders' suggestion to keep lower public profiles, especially noteworthy during the August recess following closely on Trump's signing of the tax cut and spending reduction bill last month.