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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Randy Bryce stated on July 9, 2017 in a TV interview: Says Paul Ryan \"has not had a public town hall within the district for over 600 days.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" mostly-true/4ac7c61540eff5211f6a04d98a6bc93a.jpg.\\") ![\\"mostly- true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") * Elections * Wisconsin * Randy Bryce ![\\"Residents](\\" __00421_DE_SISTI_54324119/fb05e77d8b21cbf3af1216cbff5d79d2.JPG\\") Residents of Paul Ryan\'s congressional district in southeast Wisconsin speak at a \"town hall\" meeting organized by the group Forward Kenosha. Ryan did not attend the event. (Mike De Sisti) By Alan Hovorka July 21, 2017 # Challenger mostly on target with claim that Paul Ryan has gone 600 days without a town hall meeting One of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s 2018 challengers has risen to prominence with a flurry of media interviews, a viral campaign launch video and a quick influx of small-dollar donations. In one of those interviews, Democrat Randy Bryce claimed Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, doesn’t face his constituents. Bryce, an ironworker, appeared July 9, 2017, on WISN-TV’s \"Upfront with Mike Gousha,\" where he claimed \"Paul Ryan has not had a public town hall within the district for over 600 days.\" With Republicans facing feisty constituents at town hall meetings across the country, has Ryan really not held such a meeting in more than 600 days? What makes a town hall? Just what is a town hall meeting? The answer in the digital age can vary. A look through Ryan’s U.S. House website indicates that the last public, in- person town hall meeting he held was on Oct. 6, 2015, shortly before he was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Thus, Ryan has gone more than 650 days without holding a similar town hall meeting. That’s where the different definitions come in. David Keith, a spokesman for Bryce, cited a reference.com Q&A that defines a town hall as an informal, in-person meeting between citizens and public figures. \"Many modern town halls are held in locations that are accessible to the public and can accommodate large crowds,\" the site reads. Historically, town halls are in-person, informal events where people can ask public officials unscripted questions. The Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries’ definitions and usage examples both have a physical connotation. In recent years, Ryan has opted for office hours, telephone town halls and employee town halls -- those done at workplaces. Indeed, the information cited by Bryce from reference.com relies in part on the nonpartisan Congress Management Foundation, which has been looking into the effects of in-person, online and telephone town halls. The foundation conducts research into the evolving methods to host town halls and their comparative effectiveness. Ryan spokesman Ian Martorana said the speaker considers telephone and employee town halls to be forms of public town hall meetings and said telephone town halls make up a significant portion of Ryan’s interactions with constituents. Martorana said they conduct telephone town halls by calling \"every household with a registered voter in the pertinent counties whose contact information we have and who reside in Wisconsin\'s First District.\" #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on July 29, 2024 in una publicación en Instagram Este video muestra un robo de votos en la elección del 2024 en Venezuela. ![\\"true\\"](\\" rulings/tom_ruling_falso/7afe5367c2d46afca69ca3f17ae24296.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" rulings/tom_ruling_falso.png\\") By Maria Briceño • July 30, 2024 He added: \"The calls are not screened, and they are answered in the order they are received.\" Employee town halls are another matter. These are typically hosted by private businesses where the audience is usually pre-selected, and so are their questions. The public is largely barred from these events, and reporters are usually unable to ask questions. Ryan recently held two employee town halls while Congress was on break for the Fourth of July holiday, visiting businesses in Oak Creek and Racine. Audience members offered Ryan a series of friendly questions. \"If you had to make a decision between attending an October regular season Packers game or a Brewers World Series game, which one?\" one person asked, according to a CBS news article. The day after he visited those businesses, Ryan took questions from reporters at the state Capitol where he said he was looking for \"creative ways\" to interact with constituents, instead of traditional town hall meetings. Ryan also said he was thinking of safety, trying to avoid a \"screaming fest\" from protesters bused into his district and that having reporters at events limits the conversation. \"I find when you guys are there, people tend to clam up,\" Ryan told reporters on July 7, 2017. Ryan did hold a number of campaign events the day before his 2016 primary election that he billed as town halls -- though they did not match the framework of his last in-person listening session. Reports and a video from the event indicate that it was much more in keeping with the employee town halls meetings. And as campaign events, they had a different purpose than a traditional town hall. Past criticism Ryan has been criticized in the past for not being accessible to his constituents. In February 2017, the left-leaning group Forward Kenosha organized a mock town hall at a union hall where constituents posed questions to an empty chair. In May, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) held a town hall in Ryan’s district. Martorana said Ryan’s office has issued 60,000 responses this year to constituents who have contacted the office by phone, email, fax or letter. He added that recent telephone town halls reached more than 13,000 constituents in Walworth, Rock, Kenosha and Racine counties. In contrast, U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner ( R-Wis.), the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, has not shied away from open town halls, sometimes facing raucous crowds. Sensenbrenner has held more than 80 public town halls so far in 2017, according to the calendar on his website. Our rating Bryce said \"Paul Ryan has not had a public town hall within the district for over 600 days.\" Bryce’s claim is broad and doesn’t account for the emerging ways people can communicate with public officials, but he’s mostly on target in saying Ryan hasn’t held a traditional town hall in almost two years. We rate his claim Mostly True. Share the Facts 2017-07-24 16:10:57 UTC PolitiFact ![\\"PolitiFact\\"](\\" logo-big.jpg\\"/) 5 1 7 ![\\"PolitiFact](\\" mostlytrue.jpg\\") PolitiFact Rating: Mostly True Challenger mostly on target with claim that Paul Ryan has gone 600 days without a town hall meeting Randy Bryce Democratic candidate for Wisconsin\'s 1st District congressional seat ![](\\" In an interview Sunday, July 9, 2017 2017-07-09 Read More info #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources TV news segment, \"Bryce: Campaign launch reaction surprising\", Upfront with Mike Gousha, WISN 12, July 8, 2017 Press release archive, \"Paul Ryan’s U.S. House website\". Press release, \"RECAP: RYAN HEARS FROM WISCONSINITES AT EIGHT LISTENING SESSION\", Paul Ryan’s website, Oct. 6, 2015. Foundation website, \"21st Century Town Hall Meetings,\" Congressional Management Foundation. Dictionary definition, \"Town hall,\" Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Dictionary definition, \"Town hall,\" Oxford Dictionary. News article, \"Speaker Paul Ryan calls North Korea \'No. 1\' foreign policy concern,\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 6, 2017. News article, \"Questions linger even after Paul Ryan holds town hall meeting,\" CBS Evening News, July 6, 2017. News article, \"House Speaker Paul Ryan met with Foxconn as Wisconsin tries to lure tech firm\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 7, 2017. Tweets, \"Tweets from CNN reporter Deirdre Walsh,\" CNN, Aug. 8, 2016. Facebook Live, \"Paul Ryan campaigns for his congressional seat,\" CNN Politics, Aug. 8, 2016. News article, \"Hundreds of Speaker Paul Ryan\'s constituents held a town hall meeting without him,\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 26, 2017. News article, \"Democrat Mark Pocan takes debate into Republican Paul Ryan\'s district,\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 10, 2017. News article, \"Democrat and iron worker Randy Bryce challenges Paul Ryan for Congress,\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 19, 2017. Calendar, \"Jim Sensenbrenner’s town hall calendar,\" Jim Sensenbrenner’s website. News article, \"Jim Sensenbrenner holds feisty town hall,\" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 4, 2017. ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Alan Hovorka ![](\\" ![](\\" Republican Governors Association stated on July 29, 2022 in Email: \"Governor Tony Evers gave counties the green light to defund Wisconsin\'s police departments.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • August 12, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Francesca Hong stated on May 18, 2022 in a tweet: \"In the Wisconsin State Assembly this session, more than 75% of GOP bills received a public hearing. Meanwhile, the GOP allowed less than 2% of Democratic bills to have a hearing.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Alan Hovorka • July 26, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Sarah Godlewski stated on May 8, 2022 in Newspaper opinion piece: \"Fifty-four percent of Wisconsinites live in a child care desert.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • July 20, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tom Tiffany stated on February 18, 2022 in Twitter: The Biden administration has been \"recklessly releasing potentially dangerous Afghans into our communities.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • May 13, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Tony Evers stated on January 13, 2022 in News release: Says he has issued more pardons than “any Wisconsin governor in contemporary history.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Alan Hovorka • February 15, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Derrick Van Orden stated on December 7, 2021 in Twitter: Actions by Joe Biden left \"10,000 to 15,000 American citizens abandoned to terrorists in Afghanistan.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • January 4, 2022 ![](\\" ![](\\" Patrick Testin stated on August 29, 2021 in TV interview: \"The vast majority of the (refugees) coming into Fort McCoy are not the SIVs\" and some have \"no documentation at all.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • October 13, 2021 ![](\\" ![](\\" Eric Toney stated on September 9, 2021 in News release: Says he “is the only candidate in the Wisconsin Attorney General race with experience as a prosecutor.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Alan Hovorka • September 16, 2021 ![](\\" ![](\\" Eric Toney stated on August 22, 2021 in TV interview: \"I\'m the only front-line prosecutor in this race that\'s actually used the resources of the Wisconsin Crime Lab in the prosecution of cases.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • September 13, 2021 ![](\\" ![](\\" Sean Duffy stated on July 20, 2017 in a TV interview: \"We\'re flying 1987 planes with 1987 technology.\" ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • September 6, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kathleen Vinehout stated on August 6, 2017 in a TV interview: Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin is \"still 16,000 manufacturing jobs lower than we were during the recession.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • August 30, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" James Peterson stated on June 23, 2017 in a ruling from the bench: \"Ted Kaczynski has less restrictive confinement than the youth at Lincoln Hills.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • August 18, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Randy Bryce stated on July 9, 2017 in a TV interview: Says Paul Ryan \"has not had a public town hall within the district for over 600 days.\" ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Alan Hovorka • July 21, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Scott Walker stated on May 17, 2017 in a radio interview: Tax cuts approved and those proposed in his state budget \"will exceed $8 billion by the time the budget is done.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Alan Hovorka • July 12, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Mark Pocan stated on June 2, 2017 in a speech at the state Democratic convention: \"Seven years later, (Scott Walker) has not hit his first campaign promise of creating 250,000 jobs.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Alan Hovorka • June 23, 2017 ### Challenger mostly on target with claim that Paul Ryan has gone 600 days without a town hall meeting * ![](\\" ![](\\" J.D. Vance stated on August 7, 2024 in a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a law that would “take children away from their parents if the parents don’t want to consent to sex changes.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Grace Abels • August 27, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on August 25, 2024 in Threads post: Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Kamala Harris used to be a man named Kamal Aroush. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • August 27, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Jeffrey Barke stated on August 23, 2024 in an Instagram post: Food and Drug Administration approval for updated COVID-19 vaccines requires a public health emergency declaration. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • August 27, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Jesse James stated on May 13, 2024 in News conference: In Wisconsin, “a legislative committee cannot release funding.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Laura Schulte • August 27, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 14, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Nike announces termination of contract with Brittney Griner after ‘strong backlash’ from online community.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 27, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on August 23, 2024 in a Threads post: Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said on CNBC, “If conservatives do not like our values, they should take their money to Home Depot.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Loreben Tuquero • August 26, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 20, 2024 in a Facebook post: “All students who knelt during the national anthem were rounded up and removed from scholarships” at the University of Texas. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 26, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on August 19, 2024 in a post: Kamala Harris has adopted the Nazi-rooted phrase “Strength Through Joy” as her campaign slogan. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • August 26, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 22, 2024 in Facebook posts: Jason Aldean rejected a $500 million music collaboration with Taylor Swift. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • August 26, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 21, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: “Elon Musk pide la prohibición de ‘The View’, ‘prefiero caminar descalzo sobre asfalto caliente que ver The View’”. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Marta Campabadal Graus • August 26, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. 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Challenger mostly on target with claim that Paul Ryan has gone 600 days without a town hall meeting