Wyden to hold online town hall on Friday

WASHINGTON (KTVZ) -- Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced Monday that he will have a live online town hall hosted by Town Hall Project, open to all Oregonians, beginning at 10:30 AM PT on Friday.

A two-time winner of Town Hall Project’s MVP Award, Wyden has held 970 town halls statewide in fulfillment of his pledge to hold at least one town hall each year in each of Oregon’s 36 counties.

“I always look forward very much to my open-to-all town halls, where Oregonians in every part of our state can voice their views, ask me questions and talk about their priorities directly with me,” Wyden said. “The coronavirus public health crisis puts those in-person community meetings on hold for the moment, but we can still have these civil conversations that focus on finding productive solutions that make sense for Oregonians.”

“Those conversations are an essential part of the ‘Oregon Way’ that makes our state so unique and admired,” he said. “And although the format this time will be different with me calling in from Washington D.C., where I have been fighting to get Oregon and the nation what’s needed for the coronavirus response as quickly as possible, I expect the conversation will be as robust as ever, given the real-time health and economic challenges Oregonians are facing.”

If you'd like to join that conversation on Friday, please fill out this form. Anybody wanting to watch the town hall can go to this Facebook link:   https://www.facebook.com/TownHallProject/posts/2560590620862367 

Town Hall Project stresses that the online town hall is open to all Oregonians, but especially encourages participation during this public health crisis from front-line health care workers, "essential" workers, recently unemployed Oregonians, small business owners, gig worker, parents of children out of school, or someone who's experienced COVID-19 in their family.

Wyden has postponed in-person town halls until there are clear-cut public health guidelines that an open-to-all public meeting poses no unusual health risk for Oregonians.