Write a commentMore than one hundred people rallied on Thursday afternoon outside the Oswego County Office Building on East 2nd Street, the site of US Representative Claudia Tenney's local district office.
The crowd had gathered to ask publicly for the Congresswoman to hold a town hall meeting to allow constituents to voice their concerns regarding cuts to numerous government programs that have been enacted since President Trump took office in January.
Local activist group Indivisible - Oswego County spearheaded the Thursday gathering. Mary Vanouse of Oswego, one of the organizers, told iHeart Oswego, "We are a group of like-minded people who have concerns about many issues since Donald Trump took office. We want to ask Claudia Tenney to meet with the people of Oswego County to address these concerns.
"The alliance Trump has seemed to form with Vladimir Putin is very concerning," Vanouse continued. "The tens of thousands of layoffs by Elon Musk and the unemployment that will come in the aftermath of them, tariffs that will affect the economy - especially our Oswego County farmers, along with immigration policy. We rely on a lot of immigrant labor in the agricultural industry."
As the assembled marchers carried signs asking "Where's Claudia", an organizer with a megaphone led a singalong beseeching, "Tenney, won't you do your job?" Many of the signs supported veterans issues. Vanouse said, "83,000 staffing cuts were made at the Veterans Administration, which was already understaffed. That is no way to care for those who served this country!"
The group's goal is to convince Representative Tenney to meet with her constituents during the upcoming April congressional recess. "Wherever she will meet us within this district, we will be there!" one organizer said.
The Congresswoman's district staff did meet with members of the group inside the office to hear concerns and schedule further contact with staffers. Requests for a statement were referred to Tenney's office in Washington.
Dozens of cars and trucks sounded their horns in acknowledgement as they drove by the crowd along East Bridge Street. Groups of marchers surrounded the intersection, but did not impede vehicle or pedestrian traffic.
Indivisible - Oswego County had scheduled the march to last for one hour, and the group dispersed at 3:00 p.m. without incident.
