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Residents gather at Rep. Barbara Comstocks (R-VA) district officer in Sterling, Va., on April 11, 2017, to urge lawmaker to push back against President Donald Trumps anti-environment agenda. CREDIT: Indivisible VA District10

STERLING,VIRGINIAWhen Congress recessed in February, many Republican lawmakers across the country refused to meet with their constituents. Those who dared to show up at town hall-style events faced outrage over GOP plans to repeal Obamacare.

As lawmakers traveled home this week for spring break, constituents were less concerned about health care issues, after Republicans failed in their initial attempt since Donald Trump assumed the presidency to repeal President Barack Obamas signature Affordable Care Act. With many Americans breathing easier about their health care, other issues, such as environmental protection and climate action, rose in prominence.

Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican who represents a portion of Northern Virginia, refused to hold a public forum in February and once again doesnt plan to meet with constituents during the current two-week recess.

In February, about 150 residents showed up for a citizens town hall where a chair sat empty at a table with Comstocks name on a card. This week, angry constituents held daily protests outside Comstocks district office in Sterling, Virginia.

Tuesdays protest, in a grassy area along a busy highway outside her office, was designated Toxic Tuesday, with a focus on the environment.

Comstock has told her constituents that she is an all-of-the-above energy strategy supporter, Chris Tandy, co-chairman of the environmental group 350 Loudoun, told ThinkProgress on Friday outside Comstocks office. We dont think thats appropriate, he said. What were looking for is a reduction to fossil fuel consumption to protect the environment.

With cars honking their support for the residents, Tandy expressed dismay at Trumps unwillingness to recognize the importance of the Paris climate agreement in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris climate deal is about the most historic climate agreement that weve ever reached. We should stay in it. We should meet our obligations under it, he said.

Tandy, who plans to attend the climate march in Washington, D.C., on April 29, also blasted Trumps choice of former Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. It would have been nice if the current administration had appointed someone to the EPA who believes in the mission of the EPA and wasnt seemingly trying to dismantle it, discredit its scientists, he said.

Comstock may understand her party-line votes arent in step with the views of the majority of her constituents, Tandy suggested. It seems like even conservative voters are coming out for the environment in some places, he said. I think theres a lot of middle ground on environmental issues.

Climate change is popping up as a major concern in other congressional districts during the spring recess. Unlike some of his Republican colleagues, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has not been shy about holding town hall meetings. The libertarian-leaning Republican held a town hall meeting in Byron Township, Michigan, on Tuesday. Unlike previous public forums, the primary discussion item was climate change.

However, when asked about climate change, Amash responded that he believes the climate changes. His solution to global warming was a strong economy, which was met with boos by the audience, as reported by MLive.com.

Amash echoed the Trump administrations position on the EPA, saying it frequently oversteps its bounds. There are places where the EPA should have a role, but I do think the EPA overreaches. I do support eliminating the EPAs authority over those things, he said.

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Republican remains a town hall no-show as climate change claims spotlight in Virginia - ThinkProgress

Verify: is CD2 growing more red

Chris Facchini, WLBZ 9:08 PM. EDT April 14, 2017

(Photo: NEWS CENTER)

AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The Maine GOP issued a press release Monday celebrating the news that Maine was more Republican than the national as a whole, according to a new report out over the weekend.

"We just received some great news over the weekend! Maine's Second Congressional District is now a Republican +2 District according to the Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," said Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party. "A Partisan Voting Index score of R+2 means the district performed two points more Republican than the national average. This is a tectonic shift for Maine in the last few years."

NEWS CENTER checked the Cook Political Report's Website. Its "Partisan Voter Index" compares how our districts voted in the last two presidential elections as compared to the national average.

It does indeed show Maine as an R+2. We can verify this information is accurate. The data used does match data from the secretary of state's office.

Is this a tectonic shift? Certainly. If you go back to the index for the 2012 and 2008 elections, the 2nd District was a D+2. In the 2008 and 2004 elections, it was a D+3. That's a five-point swing in the last 12 years.

"Since 1988 the 2nd [District] has gone Democratic at least in the presidential elections, and so this is significant, " said Democratic political analyst John Richardson. "This report, I think, shows there's a trend and the trend is moving towards Republicans in the 2nd Congressional District."

"The 2nd Congressional District has been Republican for decades," said Republican political analyst Phil Harriman. "Rep. Mike Michaud campaigned as a moderate Democrat but governed perhaps a little more to the left. You talk about issues like gun rights, hunting, less government I think the 2nd Congressional District has been solid in that mindset for decades."

More people are voting Republican in the 2nd District, so are there more Republicans? NEWS CENTER looked into the numbers of registered voters in the 2nd District from the last election cycle.

A total of 29.3 percent of voters are registered Democrats and 29.1 percent are registered Republicans, but the largest number by far are unenrolled voters at nearly 36.6 percent. Greens and Libertarians make up the other 5 percent. That's according to data provided by the Maine Secretary of State's office.

2017 WLBZ-TV

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VERIFY: Is Maine's 2nd District more Republican than the nation as a whole? - WCSH-TV

CHAMBLEE, Ga. Looking at just the history, the case for a Democratic victory in the special election in Georgias 6th Congressional District is thin. The district has voted for Republicans stretching all the way back to 1978, when Newt Gingrich first won the seat. In the years since Republicans have won re-election in the district by large margins. Tom Price, who vacated the seat to become President Donald Trumps secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, first won the district in 2004 running unopposed. And he has brushed off all Democratic challengers since then, never once having less than 60 percent of the vote.

But with Price gone and Democrats looking to take out some political frustration withTrump, the race in Georgias 6th Congressional District has taken on national significance. Democrat Jon Ossoff, buoyed by local activism and a flood of outside money, is working to pull off an upset on April 18. If Ossoff can take home more than 50 percent of the vote as he facesa fractured Republican field, hell win the seat outright. If he falls short of that figure, hell have to make it through a June runoff against a single Republican opponent.

Where the Democrats see their opportunity is in the yawning disparity between Tom Prices 2016 margin of victory in the district and Trumps. Price was re-elected in November with a 23-point spread, but Trump carried the district only by 1.5 percentage points over his rival Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney won the district with 61 percentof the voteto Barack Obamas 37percent.

So why did the 2016 race in Georgias 6th Congressional District result in so much ticket splitting in what has historically been extremely favorable territory for the GOP? The answer is complicated, but the abridged version is because demographics in the district are changing and certain flavors of Republican voters despise Donald Trump.

That area has changed; its changing, said Dante Chinni, director of the American Communities Project at George Washington University. Increasingly it is the kind of district that looks like a bad fit for the Trump Republican Party. Georgias 6th Congressional District is largely white but becomingmore diverse. And its full of wealthier, more educated voters who just arent that receptive to Trumpism or actively recoil from it.

I loved George W. [Bush], but I could not vote for Donald Trump, Vicki Ingram, a retiree in the district told me. Ingram was one of the people who split theirticket in 2016; she voted against Trump but for Tom Price. Most of the Republican candidates running to replace Price had alienated her with negative campaigning, so this week she attendeda Jon Ossoff event at the encouragement of her husband. Im sick to death of both parties, she said, before mentioning that she liked Ossoffs positivity. When I asked if she could see herself voting for the Democrat, she said, Absolutely.

On Thursday morning I tagged along on a canvasing trip with Jim Lester, a gregarious 66-year-old Ossoff volunteer who manages rental properties. (He spent the trip doing on-the-spot housing inspections of the exteriors of the homes we visited; most of them failed.) Lester told me he was drawn to Ossoff because the candidate is very Kennedy-esque, adding, I perceive him to be a moderate.A Democrat, Lestervoted for Hillary Clinton in the general election but hadcast a vote for John Kasich in Georgias Republican primary. That was a strategic vote, he said, to try todeny Trump a win in the state. But Lester added, I could be very happy with John Kasich as president.

As Lester and I tromped through a neighborhood called Chateau Woods, we stopped to chat with Bob Wolford, an independent who had voted for Republicans in the past but had cast an early ballot for Ossoff the previous day. We are practically in a one-party state, Wolford explained to me when I asked why hehad voted for the Democrat. With Republicans controlling Congress, the White House and a majority of state legislatures, Wolfordexplained, Im only going to vote for a Democrat because thats the only way to get opposition in the government.

Republicans recent attacks against Ossoff also seem to have had a negative impact on Republicans. Wolford said that he was turned off by the GOPsattack adsabout Ossoff. Ive seen one positive ad on the Republican side, he said. All the other ads say if youre voting for Ossoff, youre voting for ISIS.

The running theme I encountered when talking to voters in Georgias 6th Congressional District was frustration with Trump, partisan rigidity and negative politicking. Ossoff has positioned himself to capitalize on that frustration and the shifting demographics, but hes still a Democrat running in a historically Republican district. The politics of Georgias sixth district are changing and Trump seems to be catalyzing that political shift. Well know soon whether the district has changed enough to elect its first Democratic representative in nearly four decades.

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Frustration with Trump down South: The changing politics of reliably Republican congressional district propels Jon ... - Salon

Vice President Mike Pence says Republicans are united in keeping their promise to repeal ObamaCare. House Speaker Paul Ryan says the same.

But some House Republicans are openly saying theyll break that promise, conceding they played their constituents for suckers and undermining leaders they claim to respect, such as Pence and Ryan. Not long ago Pence was one of their House colleagues, serving honorably alongside them.

The group of House Republican moderates known as the Tuesday Group is comprised of men and women who, like all Republicans over the past several years, repeatedly championed the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare as part of numerous successful political campaigns that grew and secured Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. But now, when the time has arrived to actually vote for a bill that would repeal and replace ObamaCare, they suddenly have a newfound affinity for this disastrous policy which has thrown a monstrous monkey wrench into one-fifth of the U.S. economy.

Over in the U.S. Senate the GOP moderate Senators, whove been in Washington for decades, have just cast a far tougher vote: theyve done away with the filibuster for Supreme Court judges which for them is something they never saw themselves doing.

I am not eager to see the rules changed so I hope that Democrats do not launch a filibuster against an eminently well-qualified nominee, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the Senate GOP moderates, told reporters recently. Im hoping were not going to get to that point.

Their reticence to cast such a tough vote is understandable, yet they have done what they know is best for the country; theyve refused to let partisan battles inside the chamber deprive the country of an exceptionally well qualified Supreme Court justice.

If Senate GOP moderates can invoke the nuclear option with regard to Supreme Court confirmations, a vote they visibly, vocally and repeatedly wished theyd never have to cast, then House GOP moderates can cast a much easier vote: a vote they literally promised their constituents theyd be proud to cast.

Conservative House Republican members, and many of the conservative organizations supporting them, wrongly bore the initial blame for the failure of the American Health Care Act to even get to the House floor for a vote. Conservatives made it clear that first bill was unacceptable on principled grounds: it left the architecture of ObamaCare in place and it would ultimately exacerbate the problems millions of Americans currently experience.

When buzz began circulating in Washington that the bill wasnt dead, it was because these conservatives were intent on finding a way forward because they believed the GOP owed it to the voters who put them in power to fulfill the promises made to those voters. Vice President Pence, representing the White House, was exceedingly helpful in trying navigate a course in the parlance of Congress to get to yes.

Conservative organizations were cautiously optimistic the new proposal, which would allow governors to undo the costly and destructive ObamaCare regulations, would receive support from all House Republicans. This is a quite sensible solution, as it moves power out of Washington and closer to the people.

Thats a principle Republicans usually embrace, but listening to some House GOP moderates one now has to suspend disbelief.

Suddenly, several House Members with an R after their name are now doing their best impressions of House Democratic Leader Nance Pelosi perhaps the most liberal leader in Washington.

They dont talk about repealing ObamaCare anymore, they now say it can be fixed. They want to keep the structure of ObamaCare in place, suddenly oblivious to the evidence from all over the country that its failing now and will only get worse.

Meanwhile, countless constituents whove voted time and again to send these House Republicans back to Congress on the hope theyd one day have the opportunity to repeal this disaster now stand there stunned as their hometown Republican wraps his arms around ObamaCare as if hes loved it all along.

Its time for House Republican moderates to follow the lead of their Senate GOP moderate counterparts. They just cast a truly tough vote.

Keeping a promise repeatedly made to voters and constituents should be an easy vote.

David McIntosh is a leader for the principles of limited constitutional government and individual freedom and is president of the Club for Growth.

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GOP moderates in the Senate used the nuclear option, now House Republican moderates must repeal ObamaCare - Fox News

This orderly swath of Atlanta suburbs was never supposed to worry Republicans. Theyve had a lock on the congressional seat since 1979, with a string of rock-ribbed conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and Tom Price.

Then Donald Trump happened.

Now the GOP is in an unexpected scramble to prevent a politically inexperienced millennial Democrat unknown months ago from turning their longtime stronghold blue.

Party officials are filled with angst ahead of the April 18 special election in Georgias 6th Congressional District to replace Price, who vacated the seat to become Trumps Health and Human Services secretary.

After a scare for Republicans in Kansas on Tuesday, when a congressional race got uncomfortably close in a district Trump had dominated in the presidential election, the Georgia fight teeters on becoming a full-blown crisis for a party that should be relishing its recent success and consolidating power. A Democratic win here, unthinkable only weeks ago, is now a very real possibility. It would be yet another indication that Democrats are not the only party hobbled by a national identity crisis in the age of Trump.

Nothing like this has ever happened before in Georgia, Charles S. Bullock III, a University of Georgia political science professor, said of the exorbitantly expensive free-for-all the race has become.

With Democratic donors nationwide rallying around 30-year-old Jon Ossoff, the surprise front-runner has raised a staggering $8.3 million, dwarfing contributions to all 11 of his Republican rivals combined.

For Democrats, the allure of the Sunbelt district stems from voter uneasiness about Trump, who barely won here in November. By contrast, Mitt Romney, the last GOP nominee, crushed Barack Obama by double digits.

Ossoff is polling at around 43%, far beyond any of his contenders in the open primary. Thats largely because the GOP candidates are splitting the vote.

But Ossoff is now within striking distance of winning the majority required to avoid a runoff in June, which may be his best hope, since many believe a two-candidate runoff would favor the Republican.

Two or three months ago, nobody had a clue who this guy was, Bullock said.

As they lined up at polls this week for early voting, several residents made clear they were viewing the race as a referendum on the president.

The Trump administration is scary, said Jeffrey Chou, a 25-year-old graduate student voting for the first time who came to support Ossoff. I dont like what they are doing. I felt it was important to come out and send a message that we dont support it.

He was joined in line by a 60-year-old nurse who voted for Price in the past, but said all the insanity at the White House has driven her to vote Democrat this time. Arriving soon after was a 38-year-old patent agent trainee who hadnt volunteered for a political campaign since college, but said Trumps behavior drove her to canvass for Ossoff. A physician in his 60s who said he had worked with Price professionally and voted for him declared he would cast a ballot for Ossoff to stick it in the eyes of Trump.

You are seeing the liberals demonstrating their total disgust for Donald Trump, said Max Wagerman, 52, a GOP loyalist who boasted of living in the same subdivision as Gingrich. Theyve got all the juice now. They have the organization. Republicans here are just too lazy and the liberals are going to get this one.

With momentum on his side, Ossoff is now everywhere: omnipresent in television ads, his face plastered on lawn signs and car bumper stickers, talked up by the thousands of volunteers many from out of state incessantly knocking on doors and dialing up voters.

Desire by Democrats to land an electoral blow against Trump is so intense that the party is showing uncharacteristic discipline in a messy race with 18 candidates. It quickly rallied behind Ossoff, with liberal bloggers setting in motion a Bernie Sanders-style fundraising operation that has resulted in a frenzy of small-dollar donations, the largest amount of which are coming not from Georgia, but California.

Ossoff is no Bernie Sanders. He is a cautious, scripted moderate who spends much less time on the campaign trail whipping up rage against Trump than carefully calculating remarks that avoid offending the areas upscale suburban electorate.

Folks here are excited now for fresh leadership presenting a substantive message about local economic development and talking about core values, he said at his Marrieta campaign office, just before a crowded candidate forum where Ossoff was the only one who ended some of his answers without even using the full minute allotted. They are tired of partisan politics.

But partisan politics is what they are getting. First, there is his deluge of outside cash. Republican groups have countered by pouring millions of dollars into ads attacking Ossoff as a political neophyte aligned with rioting protesters. One even made ominous insinuations about Ossoffs past work as a filmmaker for cable channel Al Jazeera.

As election day looms, Republicans are focusing their attacks on each other. They are slugging it out for what they hope will be a spot on the runoff ballot against Ossoff. The intensity of their attacks lay bare how much Trump has complicated Republican politics in districts such as this one.

Establishment favorite Karen Handel, the former Georgia secretary of State, has watched her strong lead steadily diminish amid an assault from the conservative, anti-tax group Club for Growth and others who question her ideological purity. One ad depicts her as a stumbling elephant in pearls; others accuse the fiscal conservative of recklessly spending tax dollars. Handel does not relish talking about Trump, and her husband abruptly ends an interview after it turns to questions about how the tumult in the White House is affecting the race.

All you need to know about this district is Mitt Romney won it by 22 points and Trump won it by one and a half points, said GOP pollster Whit Ayres, who is working as a consultant for Handel. This defines the kind of upscale suburban district where Trump struggled. Karen is the type of person this district has tended to support.

One Trump loyalist who threatens to overtake her on Tuesday is Bob Gray, a telecom executive backed by the Club for Growth. He dismissed as hype all the chatter that the local electorate is so uneasy with Trump that it could go blue. I dont think its in the cards, Gray said. This is a conservative seat. Lets be real: Newt Gingrich, Tom Price. The district hasnt changed that much.

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Georgia voters in this reliably Republican district may be preparing to 'stick it' to Trump - Los Angeles Times