Rep. Jared Huffman addresses large crowd, discusses Trump and democracy in Petaluma town hall

A crowd of around 600 people from across the North Bay gathered Thursday night at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building for a town hall hosted by Rep. Jared Huffman.

The San Rafael Democrat, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012 , discussed his work in Washington D.C., as well as his response to President Donald Trump’s administration and took questions from audience members.

Declaring that the United States is “speed walking toward authoritarianism,” Huffman said he has been a strong critic of the president since before Trump’s election and cited his work developing and leading the Stop Project 2025 Task Force.

Bali Simon, a 16-year-old Terra Linda High School student, asked Huffman about what he’s doing to pushback against Trump’s agenda, which has included the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, which has intervened in a wide swath of the federal government.

Simon drew parallels between Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany and Trump’s return to the White House. She said Democratic leaders’ only responses to Trump seem to be “strongly worded tweets” and “polite opposition.”

“I study AP history and I have read about how democracies crumbled in the face of fascism when leaders try to compromise with extremists,” Simon said, as other audience members reacted to her statements with a standing ovation. “I am watching history repeat itself. Donald Trump and his enablers are not just political opponents, they are a threat to democracy …”

In response, Huffman, whose district includes the North Bay, said he is “doing everything he can” and will begin using new methods of communication to reach more people, such as podcasts and Bluesky rather than X.

Bluesky is a social media platform created in 2019 by one of the original creators of Twitter, which Musk purchased in 2022 and has since renamed X. Millions of former Twitter users have migrated to Bluesky.

“We are also going to be doing a lot of work that you might not see everyday on social media,” Huffman said. “I do understand history quite well and I see the parallels and they are dark and they are real.”

At a similar event hosted Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, a packed crowd gathered at the Crosswalk Community Church in Napa to hear about Thompson’s work in D.C.

There were some tense moments at that gathering as a group of Trump supporters protested outside.

Thursday’s 90-minute event, which started at 5 p.m., was peaceful aside from a couple of hecklers in the audience, who called on Huffman to counter the Trump administration with more aggressive and progressive actions.

Other attendees asked the congressman how to get involved and support his work on the grassroots level to which he said the “biggest tool we have is public opinion” and encouraged people to organize, make calls to Republican leaders and remain peaceful.

At the end of the meeting, Huffman told an audience member he would advocate for the district ahead of the March 14 government funding deadline.

“I am going to insist on safeguards and reforms and other assurances that matter and not a window dressing that Donald Trump can just turn around and ignore,” Huffman said. “Stick with the next few weeks and watch what I do.”

Thompson is hosting an additional town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Friday with state Assembly member Chris Rogers at the Santa Rosa Utilities Field Operations Center at 35 Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa.

Related Stories

Local Huffman, Thompson events draw huge interest from constituents concerned about Trump actions

More than 1,000 people have signed up to attend Rep. Jared Huffman’s event tonight at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building.

Correction (10:55 a.m. Feb. 21, 2025): Rep. Huffman was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012. This story has been revised to provide the correct year.

Contact Staff Writer Anna Armstrong at 707-521-5255 or anna.armstrong@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @annavarmstrongg.

Copy article link