“Where’s Jack?”

It's become something of a rallying cry for Traverse Indivisible, the advocacy group pressuring northern Michigan’s Congressional officials to visit Traverse City for in-person town hall events. The group’s goal is to provide an arena where local constituents can voice whatever concerns they have about sweeping federal government changes since President Trump took office in January. But while Indivisible leaders say they’ve had productive conversations with Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, they’ve been rebuffed by northern Michigan’s lone voice in the United States House of Representatives, Jack Bergman, who hasn’t held a single town hall in his district since 2017.

Traverse Indivisible and Leelanau Indivisible, both chapters of the national anti-Trump Indivisible Project, have jointly scheduled a “Jack Bergman Town Hall” for next Saturday, March 22 at Milliken Auditorium. The event will include both in-person and livestream options and is expected to last 90 minutes.

What isn’t expected is an appearance from Bergman himself. The congressman was a no-show last week at a similar event in Escanaba.

“Of course, if Representative Bergman does show, we’ll have a spot for him center stage where he could hold a town hall,” says John DeSpelder, one of the leaders of Traverse Indivisible. “But even without him, we’re going to go ahead anyway. We want to give people time to tell their stories about how they’ve been affected by this administration, by things like budget cuts and layoffs.”

“Many people in your district are dismayed over what has taken place in the first few weeks of President Trump’s administration,” DeSpelder wrote in a letter inviting Bergman to the event. “From the abrupt and random firing of federal workers, the access to sensitive computer systems and personal information that has been given to an unelected and unappointed private individual, and the bullying threats against the leader of a European nation under attack, we are deeply concerned by your support of these reckless actions… First District citizens deserve to hear from you in person about your perspective, including what you support, what you don’t, and why.”

James Hogge, Bergman's communications director, confirmed the congressman has no intention of attending the Indivisible event.

“The Congressman will not now, or ever, attend a George Soros-funded so-called town hall,” Hogge wrote in an email to The Ticker. Hogge’s message included a link showing the $9.475 million in grants that Open Society Foundations (OSF), the grantmaking network founded by Soros, has given to the Indivisible Project since 2017.

Soros, a 94-year-old billionaire philanthropist, launched OSF in 1979 and has since used the network to give away $23 billion, according to Forbes. OSF purports “to build vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their people,” operating in dozens of countries worldwide and supporting groups that work toward “justice, equity, human rights, and democratic practice.”

In 2019, The BBC called Soros “a bogeyman for the hard right,” noting how the billionaire has been the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories for decades. Most recently, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) suggested Soros might be behind pro-Palestine protests on American college campuses.

Johnson has also claimed that the angry constituents showing up at recent GOP town halls across the nation are “paid protesters,” urging Republican lawmakers not to hold nor attend such events.

“You could talk to any of the 350-400 people that were demonstrating in support of Ukraine the other day and I’m sure they’d all tell you that they were not paid to be there,” DeSpelder says, referring to a March 4 protest Traverse Indivisible organized (pictured). The local Indivisible chapter has hosted several protests since Trump took office, including a demonstration at the Traverse City Governmental Center on Presidents Day that drew 300 people.

When asked what those demonstrators are actually protesting – and why getting face time with the likes of Bergman, Peters, or Slotkin is such a high priority – Carlton Ketchum, another Traverse Indivisible leader, says the group foresees many Trump administration moves having negative local impacts.

“It’s things like a 20 percent cutback of Veteran’s Affairs staffers, or wanting to get rid of the Department of Education, or cut Medicaid,” Ketchum tells The Ticker. “You want to see a boom in people living at the Pines? Cut Medicaid. You want to have mom and dad come live with you? Cut Social Security. People don’t realize the poverty these decisions are going to cause, and by extension, the unnecessary deaths.”

DeSpelder and Ketchum insist their push for town halls doesn’t just apply to Bergman. Both are hopeful Slotkin and Peters will also make their way north. Peters staffers did not respond to inquiries about the senator's town hall plans, but the newly-elected Slotkin held an in-person event with Upper Peninsula constituents last month and is hosting her first “telephone town hall” this evening. DeSpelder says he’s “had discussions” with both senators’ offices and that “they remain open” to doing town halls in northern Michigan. 

Speaking to a Marquette TV station last month, Bergman explained he stopped holding town halls after 2017 because “the left, the resist movement, the whatever they called themselves, they disrupted good people who were trying to ask questions… It was like a bunch of middle school kids who weren’t paying attention to the teacher or the principal. The bottom line is we will always be available to meet with constituents and small groups and talk about issue things, but we’re not doing drama. Sorry.”

For his part, Hogge sees Indivisible groups and their ilk as a loud but small minority, rather than as truly representative of the electorate.

“The election results speak for themselves,” Hogge says. “Representative Bergman and President Donald Trump are doing literally what they promised they would do during the campaign. Maybe this group of far-left voters aren’t used to their elected officials doing exactly what they promised they would do, but Representative Bergman hasn’t changed since the day he was elected.”

In the November 2024 election, Trump won Michigan by about 80,000 votes, while Bergman carried District 1 by more than 100,000 votes.