Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar hosts town hall in Antioch with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones

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3 days ago

Cheers rocketed off the cinder block walls while a sign waved above the crowd, reading, 'Love thy Neighbor.'
Hundreds of people gathered at Cane Ridge High School on July 12 to listen to and question a Minnesota Congressperson and Nashville representative. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, both Democrats, hosted an energetic town hall.
The loudest applause of the afternoon was not for the politicians, but for a 17-year-old Nashville student. Breckyn Forcey, a student at University School of Nashville, read her poem 'The Empire Eats Itself' with confidence to a crowd that roared.
'This is what grief looks like when it's forced to wear red, white and blue,' one line of the poem reads.
Forcey emailed the poem to Jones' office just one day before the town hall, and he invited her to read it. Jones praised Forcey for her clarity.
'That represents the best of who we can be as citizens — that truth telling, that power,' he said.
Omar was in town on just a few days' notice, her campaign manager Raquel Sidie-Wagner said. It was not the first time the two progressive lawmakers had joined together; they held a town hall in Minnesota together last year, Wagner said.
The hosts intentionally chose to have the event in Antioch, where Cane Ridge High is located, rather than downtown, Jones said, hoping to reach immigrants and working-class people.
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'We hardly see anything here, where the working-class people live,' Jones said. He estimated that more than 400 people attended the event.
Jones and Omar spent considerable time at the start of the meeting criticizing U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-Columbia), who represents Antioch's district. Ogles has not recently held an in-person town hall, leading Jones to call Ogles "missing in action.'
Ogles has held telephone town halls. A spokesperson for his office declined to comment on the criticism levied by Omar and Jones.
Throughout discussions of increasing immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, the increasing cost of living and the recently passed Big Beautiful Bill, Omar told the crowd that change is possible.
'We've been through a lot as a nation; the pendulum always swings,' she said.
Several in the crowd were educators, including Yvette Lawary, an English language arts teacher at Donelson Middle School. Lawary said she is still relatively new to Nashville — she moved to the area in 2021 — and looking to get more involved in politics.
'I'm trying to become more informed,' Lawary said.
Omar and Jones took about 10 questions before wrapping up at about 5:30 p.m. — 30 minutes past scheduled end time.
One of the last things Omar did during the town hall was encourage people to have more conversations with their neighbors, regardless of their political affiliation. Those conversations can change the way we see each other, the way we think about policy and vote, Omar said.
'I am an optimist,' she said.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Ilhan Omar hosts town hall in Antioch with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones