Constituents of U.S. Rep. Ben Cline in the 6th District of Virginia are encouraged to attend a protest Tuesday, March 4 from 1 to 3 p.m. outside his Staunton office.
Cline’s refusal to hold local town halls has sparked anger from Virginians represented by him in Congress, including individuals already upset with his choices to support Republican funding cuts of Medicaid and other essential national programs.
Jennifer Lewis of Waynesboro said she has been attending Cline constituent meetings for years and Thursday’s in Waynesboro was very different.
“To me, it feels like intimidation,” she said of the presence of Homeland Security officers.
Lewis ran for Congress in opposition of Cline in the 2022 election. Many voters speak about the district being a red district and that it will always be a red district, but Lewis, a Democrat, does not agree.
Although she attended the Waynesboro meeting with a member of Cline’s staff, she said she will also attend the protest outside Cline’s Staunton office on Tuesday.
“It’s just continuing the force, continuing that we’re not going to back down, we’re not going to give up,” Lewis said.
The cuts Republicans, including Cline, are choosing to make are matters of life and death, such as Medicaid.
When running in 2022, Lewis said she knocked on doors and spoke with voters. She also cried with them when they voiced their fears about losing health care.
“And Ben Cline is purposefully not facing these people,” she said.
She said that as a representative in the U.S. House, Cline has “all the power. He can make people’s lives better.”
But, she said he does not care about helping constituents.
“The power and responsibility he has he’s not taking seriously,” Lewis said.
Cline is following the agenda of the GOP, which provides maximum funding for him when he runs for office.
Lewis, who ran for elected office in 2018 and 2022, said she takes seriously the responsibility to run for elected office and she is trying to talk herself out of running again someday.
“I’m a straight white woman who owns her own home and lives a middle-class life,” Lewis said. She said she feels it is her responsibility to use her voice for individuals who have not had the opportunities she has had to use their voice.
Diana Black of Staunton said she attended the Waynesboro meeting Thursday and it made her feel more motivated to attend Tuesday’s protest at Cline’s office.
“It was really disheartening how badly the people wanted to be heard and the staffers were not making space for that,” she said.
The mentality was us versus them in Waynesboro, yet, according to Black, constituents who voted Democrat were not the only individuals present. And anyone who is a constituent of Cline’s “who is not feeling sufficiently heard” is welcome to join Tuesday’s protest.
“You don’t just work for the people who agree with you,” Black said of elected officials such as Cline.
If Cline will not listen to his constituents through the Democratic process, then “you have to take it to the streets.”
“I’m hoping that there will be an obvious unity about the different sections of the 6th District,” Black said of constituents who attend Tuesday’s protest.
Whether Cline likes it or not, Black said “we are his bosses” and she would like to see engagement from constituents from Roanoke and all the way to Winchester.
On social media after Waynesboro‘s meeting, Cline erroneously stated that Lewis made a speech at the meeting. Lewis and Black both confirmed that she did not make a speech to his constituents.
Virginia’s 6th Congressional District represents voters in all of Augusta, Allegheny, Bath, Botetourt, Clarke, Frederick, Lancaster, Page, Rockingham, Rockbridge, Warren and Shenandoah counties, parts of Highland and Roanoke counties and all of the cities of Buena Vista, Covington, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Roanoke, Salem, Staunton, Waynesboro and Winchester.
Cline’s Staunton office is at 117 South Lewis Street.
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Rebecca Barnabi
