As he entered the La Plata County Board Room on Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd stopped to greet constituents wearing matching yellow T-shirts in the front row.
“We have shook hands,” he said as he greeted one. “We have not,” he said, turning to another.
The Board of County Commissioners hosted the freshman Republican from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District at a 7:30 a.m. work session. While no public comment was taken, more than 40 people showed up in person and 17 joined online. Many wore neon shirts urging the lawmaker to protect federally managed public lands.
Hurd addressed the attendees directly as the meeting began.
“I see the yellow shirts. … I’m glad you’re here,” he said.
The lawmaker has yet to hold an in-person town hall since taking office.
That’s not unintentional.
Around the country, Republicans have faced intense criticism at public forums, as constituents confront them over their role – or lack thereof – in challenging the administration of President Donald Trump, who has increasingly tried to expand the reach of his executive office. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was jeered at a town hall last week, the same day police used Tasers on two people who interrupted Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at a town hall north of Atlanta.
“I hope to have a town hall before long,” Hurd said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “I think we just need to make sure that it’s the right time and place and that it’s going to be something that allows for a dialogue and back-and-forth, rather than just shouting.”
Instead, Hurd is filling his schedule with meetings with county commissioners and other smaller groups during his time away from Washington. He met with the state’s agriculture commissioner and other experts in the field at James Ranch on Tuesday night, and headed north to meet with Ouray County commissioners after the Durango meeting.
A staff member said the congressman has routinely taken questions from the public at dozens of meetings across the district and is not shying away from difficult questions.
Hurd is quick and affable with constituents, and anxious to engage. He remembers names and where individuals stand on key issues. A staff member had to try several times to pry him away from an exchange with one upset attendee – an interaction he insisted on ending by asking her name.
Still, Hurd is no pushover. He chided a group of constituents on their criticism of Colorado natural resource extraction by asking how much of their clothing, car or bicycle was made with hydrocarbons.
The crowd on Wednesday remained mostly quiet throughout the meeting, although the blunt thrust of their position was not lost on the congressman.
“I know I probably don’t have that many votes here from people, and may not in the future,” Hurd told the crowd. “But I will tell you that does not matter when it comes to representing you in Congress.”
In a conversation after the formal work session, Hurd assured Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton that it was OK for her to criticize him if needed – “I don’t take it personally.”
Although his predecessor, Rep. Lauren Boebert, often found herself embroiled in controversy – sometimes intentionally, other times not – Hurd has made it clear during his four months in Congress that he does not seek the spotlight.
Still, he has not remained quiet on certain issues.
After hearing from many in his district, where 31% of residents rely on Medicaid for health care, he signed a letter to Republican congressional leaders urging them to preserve coverage for vulnerable populations. He has also backed legislation that would reinstate probationary federal employees who were fired as part of indiscriminate downsizing of the federal workforce, with their seniority status restored. He has also signed on to a bill to rein in the president’s tariff authority.
These were among the topics raised by commissioners during the meeting, and reflected concerns previously discussed during a virtual meeting with him on Aug. 1.
Hurd, an attorney, is hesitant to take firm positions on controversial issues that he says he doesn’t know enough about.
“Congress has done a bad job of giving away all its authority to the executive branch,” he told county staff members.
When pressed in an interview about his stance on the president’s lack of compliance with a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported Maryland man to El Salvador, Hurd was unwilling to take a position or even analyze the situation.
“I think we need to see how this process works out, what the Supreme Court does, how this process works,” he said. “I’d wait and see what the facts are. I think I’m going to reserve judgment until we have a chance to see exactly how this works out.”
Many in attendance expressed concerns about a possible sell-off of public lands to cover the cost of extending 2017 tax cuts.
“I’m generally skeptical of a wholesale sell-off of public lands; I don’t think that would be a good thing,” Hurd said, but did not rule out limited land sales depending on the circumstances.
Outside the county board room after the meeting, Hurd was confronted by a group of at least 20 protesters holding signs. To the chagrin of his staff, he stopped to talk.
“I’m Jeff,” he said, shaking hands and reading their signs aloud.
One protester warned Hurd that letters and unpassed legislation are nice gestures, but that constituents would be watching how he votes.
“From what I heard today and have seen in the Congressman’s weekly newsletter, I have little confidence that he is hearing and understanding his constituency and then acting in Congress on their behalf,” Jimbo Buickerood, a public lands advocate, wrote in an email to The Durango Herald after the meeting. “The list of issues that he needs to actively ‘pushback’ on related to the economic, health/wellness and confidence-in-government of his constituency is very long and so far he’s only ‘showed up’ to take a public stance on a couple issues that run counter to the chaos being sown in our lives by his political party.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
