At Hill District town hall, Lee argues Democrats should not shy from 'activism and organizing'

At a packed town hall meeting on Thursday night, several hundred Pittsburghers gathered to ask Congresswoman Summer Lee what is being done — and what should be done — in the face of President Donald Trump’s sweeping moves in Washington DC.

Speaking passionately from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Hill District, Lee’s message to those seated in the pews centered on meeting the moment with urgency and not giving up opposition against Trump and Republicans.

“The reality is, the things that worked for us even two years ago cannot work in a failing democracy. And we are in a failing democracy right now,” Lee said.

“However you are reacting to this moment, you are likely under-reacting. And I don't take that lightly because I also don't wanna cause fear. I want to spur people to action, to feeling empowered, but not feeling so crippled by just the weight of what's happening that we step back.”

Lee said that some in the Democratic Party are trying to avoid the disruption of decorum. She said Democrats should “redefine the type of leadership that [they] want,” listen to organizers and activists — and cede the stage if they’re not willing to fight.

“If you served for 40 years and you served your time, and this isn’t the moment where you’re ready to stand up, fight back, scream, shout, hold the floor, and you’re not willing to shut down sessions, then maybe it’s okay to step aside,” Lee said. “But we want to have those types of conversations about what it looks like to be bold.”

Lee also advised that some Republicans in the House are not in lockstep about following Trump’s agenda, especially when it comes to potential cuts to programs such as Medicaid and Social Security. She encouraged constituents to pressure Republican elected officials to voice their opposition.

“Right now they're trying to decide if they're more afraid of Donald Trump or if they're more afraid of you, and what we need to say is that you need to be more afraid of us,” she said. “We want them to know that they can come over to our side, that they can preserve our democracy. And if they don't, we want them to know that they will have no comfort whether they're in D.C. or in their districts.”

Audience members asked Lee a variety of questions on topics ranging from the attempted dismantling of the Department of Education to Trump’s proximity to billionaire Elon Musk to what Democrats could be doing better to meet the moment.

Lee argued that Democrats should focus on improving communication to the public, and on organizing inside and outside of government.

“The biggest thing that I was afraid of with Democrats was this idea that we say sometimes that organizing is a lesser version, that sometimes we shun activism and organizing, but the reality is, when you can't legislate, what do you have left? Activism and organizing,” she said.

“We need to welcome that, we need to encourage that, and we need to support it, and we need to lift it up, and we need to amplify it.”

Lee was also asked about combating gentrification and housing scarcity and supporting the work of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She described and criticized nationwide “villainizing” of homeless individuals, and noted that costs of living have gone up in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. She scorned private equity firms “gobbling up” housing and said that HUD must be empowered to address these problems.

“When I saw apartments that were almost as expensive as D.C. in East Liberty and Lawrenceville and other places around the city, I knew we had a PROBLEM problem, because Pittsburgh was one of those places that was supposed to be more stabilized. Well, we're not stable. And we're not treating housing like it's a human right,” she said.

“We need to make sure that the Republicans and Democrats understand that housing is something that is a priority, not just in Pittsburgh, but everywhere.”

She also pointed to the plight of veterans, who she said were “hit twice” by the targeting of DEI programs and the large-scale dismissal of federal workers at places like the VA.

“You can't be for our vets and then cut veteran services. You cannot be for our vets and then cut housing. You can't be for our vets and then not do anything about the cost of living in our communities,” she said. “Those things go hand in hand.”

At times, Lee admitted that she didn’t have a solution on hand — on how best to prevent rollbacks to environmental justice laws, for instance. But she criticized the Trump administration for the choices and cuts they had made.

“I don't know how we can focus this administration on not dismantling these issues. I don't know the answer,” she said. “I do know that the answer lies in the activism and the organizing that we've done, and it lies in the ways that we've used the federal investments so responsibly that we have used.”

Throughout, Lee did not shy away from the current reality for Democrats in Washington, but urged the audience not to despair.

“I know that we don’t have the House, we don’t have the White House, we don’t have the Supreme Court. And that can all be very true. But we are not disempowered. We are not powerless,” she said.

“We’re in the first quarter. There are more.”

This story was updated on Friday, March 21, 2025 to clarify the number of attendees.