Voters and constituents filled Milliken Auditorium in Traverse City Saturday for a “no-show” Jack Bergman town hall event, hosted by Traverse and Leelanau Indivisible.
Roughly 400 people attended in person and nearly 700 viewers were watching live.
Bergman represents 35 counties — 15 in the Upper Peninsula and 20 in the Lower Peninsula, including Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties.
As the town hall started a card board cut-out was brought to represent Bergman, who hasn’t done a public town hall since 2017 regardless of a friendly or adversary environment.
Hundreds of people voiced their concerns to the smiling Bergman cutout while the audience waived yes or no signs after a point was made by a speaker.
Topics ranged from concerns over social security to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Over the past month, town halls across the country have erupted at Republican lawmakers in reaction to President Donald Trump’s controversial moves regarding downsizing the federal government’s workforce, contradictions on Social Security, and his relationship with special White House advisor and richest man in the world Elon Musk.
