People across southern Minnesota reported getting a phone call Wednesday night inviting them to a telephone town hall with no prior notice.

To this day, Congressman Brad Finstad has not held a public town hall meeting for his constituents in southern Minnesota. However, that hasn’t stopped him from claiming he has. For over a year, Finstad has engaged in “telephone town halls”. These over-the-phone forums consist of no prior notice and an audience selected by Finstad’s staff.

Even more egregious, Southern Minnesotans from all across CD-1 reached out to Jake Johnson last night, relaying that they or their family members or coworkers had just received a call with a recorded message from Congressman Finstad saying “sorry I missed you.” Multiple listeners who got into the fake town hall reported to Jake that the questions appeared to be “softballs”.

“Brad Finstad knows his constituents are upset with his decisions, and that’s why he won’t hold a real, public, in-person town hall with them,” said Jake Johnson. “That’s why he continues to put on these charades. He’s trying to pretend he’s answering to the people of southern Minnesota, when in reality he continues to be a puppet for his big corporate donors instead. If he were actually interested in hearing from southern Minnesotans, he’d show up for them in their communities ready to hear their actual questions, no prescreening necessary.”

Jake has committed to hosting 21 in-person town halls before the election, and another 21 in every term he serves in Congress.

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