Hundreds gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church Thursday evening for a town hall hosted by Rep. Summer Lee, who repeated a common recent Democratic rally cry: now is the time to stand up for democracy.
Ms. Lee’s town hall, organized in partnership with the Hill Community Development Corporation, comes during a difficult time for Democrats in Washington, D.C. The party is in the minority in all three branches of government: Republicans hold advantages in the White House, in both branches of Congress, and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Thursday, Ms. Lee said that things might seem dim now. But, as long as residents speak up about issues that impact them, they can make positive change on matters ranging from health care to housing to environmental justice.
“What [President Donald Trump] is counting on is there will be no pushback,” Ms. Lee said. “He’s counting on that even having all three branches of government … that there is nobody to stand in his pathway to stop him.”
But the final guardrail in democracy is the people, she said — to applause from those sitting in Ebenezer’s pews.
Many Democratic voters and other Pittsburgh-area residents and organizations have worried in recent weeks about cuts coming to Medicaid, food assistance and other services.
Medicaid currently covers over 3 million residents in Pennsylvania, and Erin Dalton, director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, has said about a quarter of the county’s roughly 1.2 million residents rely on it in some form.
Medicaid serves seniors and lower-income residents and families, and officials estimate that federal cuts could cost the county tens of millions of dollars. But it’s difficult to know where those might be at this point.
In Congress, Ms. Lee has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration, criticizing “unelected billionaire oligarchs” who are not trying to make government more efficient but are trying to grow their companies’ profits, she said.
Alyson McAtee, 28, of Garfield, said before the town hall that along with those challenges, she was concerned about food insecurity in Pittsburgh. She cited a statistic that 1 in 5 residents in the city are food insecure, which city officials say “exists when a family is unable to provide enough food for each member of their household to live a healthy, active life.”
Kelli French, 55, of Greenfield, shares those concerns. A project manager for Cisco, she said she is also worried about actions taken by Elon Musk, a senior adviser to Trump and the world’s richest person.
Ms. French said Democrats need to fight harder in Washington, D.C.
“They should have gotten concessions,” she said about Senate Democrats and the recent budget fight. “And that makes it feel like nothing’s happening.”
During a virtual town hall meeting last month, Ms. Lee called out Mr. Musk, and she did so again Thursday. Ms. Lee said Mr. Musk is an unelected “prime minister” because of how he has bought his way into a government position, making various cuts to social programs and education through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Ms. Lee told reporters after the town hall that Democrats need to be tougher in negotiations and actually be working with Republicans to prevent certain cuts, especially on Medicaid and other social services.
“We already know there are Republicans who have said publicly that they can’t touch Medicaid … [they’re] saying, ‘Medicaid could be the end of my career if I touch that,’” she said.
“Make them show that if they’re not willing to do a budget with us, then they’re going to have to put up votes without us,” she added.
During the town hall, Ms. Lee also talked about the importance of combatting misinformation about what the Department of Education does. Trump, an opponent of that agency, signed an executive order Thursday aiming to dismantle it.
Dominic Grigore, a 30-year-old software engineer from Perry North, said that was one of his major concerns.
“Everything is going in the wrong direction, whether it’s cuts to social services, [or] tax cuts on the middle class while decreasing cuts for lower-income people,” Mr. Grigore said. “I don’t think this is what people voted for.”
Despite the concerns throughout the pews at Ebenezer, the mood was mostly upbeat as Ms. Lee fielded questions from the audience, which were written on paper cards and distributed to event organizers. At one point, a woman in the crowd yelled: “We want to help you!”
That was the spirit that Ms. Lee urged those in the church to take home, and spread to others as Democratic lawmakers continue their fight against the Trump administration in the nation’s capital.
“I hope you leave recognizing that this game is not over, and that our democracy is worth fighting for,” she said — drawing one of the loudest rounds of applause of the evening.
First Published: March 21, 2025, 1:32 a.m.
Updated: March 21, 2025, 10:07 a.m.
