Harden Hall “requests” Webster’s “cooperation” with town halls

In the history of throwing down gauntlets, perhaps none was more courteously spread out before the Daniel Webster campaign than Democrat Barbie Harden Hall’s Tuesday “request” for the Republican congressman’s “cooperation in scheduling two town hall debates with voters” ahead of the Nov. 5 election for the District 11 seat in Congress. The heavily Republican district includes Sumter, Lake, Polk and part of Orange counties.

“[Congressman Webster] has very high values when it comes to running a respectful race, so I figured I would start the nicest way I could,” Harden Hall told VoxPopuli in a Tuesday phone interview.

She invited Webster to participate in one forum in West Orange County at the end of September and another in The Villages in Sumter County.

We anticipate tea sandwiches and lemonade on the lawn. 

While Harden Hall hopes asking nicely works, Florida’s longest-serving politician, elected to the Florida Legislature in 1980 and to Congress with the Tea Party in 2010, has not had a stellar record of facing his opponents in town halls or debates.  

He refused to share a debate stage in 2010 with then Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, who had dubbed him “Taliban Dan,” saying that he’d run a positive campaign without attacking Grayson personally but wouldn’t be able to keep that commitment in a debate. 

In 2012, Webster joined Democrat and eventual District 10 Congresswoman Val Demings at the Tiger Bay Club for a forum, but that may have been the last time he engaged an opponent publicly. In 2022, he refused to debate right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who taunted him as “Do Nothing Dan” for missing Congressional votes.  (Webster has one of the lowest effectiveness ratings in Congress, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, and is widely known for his no-show voting record.)

VoxPopuli could find no other instances of debates, forums or town halls between Webster and his other opponents. 

Harden Hall told VoxPopuli that she believes the voters have a right to compare candidate choices in-person, pointing out that Webster, a U.S. Congressman, has 40 years in politics, and was Florida Speaker of the House and a member of the Florida Senate. 

“I’m just a mom from Mount Dora,” Harden Hall said. “It should not be hard to come meet with your opponent in front of your voters. … I would like voters to be able to hear and to see us up on stage next to each other, answering their questions and laying out our plans and our goals for the next two years. Instead of just assuming that he's going to be re-elected … without any work.”

Webster may not feel like he has to put in the effort these days. With the exception of Demings and Loomer, who both kept him to about 51 percent of the vote, Webster has won his prior elections to Congress with more than 60 percent of the vote. He swept the Aug. 20 primary against John McCloy with 77 percent of the vote. 

But Harden Hall is undaunted — even as she gets tweets from Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power that she "will get crushed." She told VoxPopuli she’s been approached by other media about doing a candidate forum and immediately said she would participate. “But it was crickets from the other side. 

“I want him to be able to defend his record. To defend his stances on women's issues, on cuts to Medicare and Social Security, on him propping up billionaires and multi-millionaires and ignoring the middle class and the working class. I want him to be able to stand in front of the voters and defend that record and why he should be reelected.”

No word yet on whether Webster has RSVP’d.