Jacobs, a San Diego congresswoman, told reporters on Friday prior to the town hall that as one of the youngest members of Congress, she believes it’s important for residents of the youngest state to see representatives who understand what concerns young people.

“Constituent services (like mobile office hours) is only one piece of our job. Showing up and answering tough questions and having conversations with our constituents is another really important part of our job,” Jacobs said. “And our title is literally representative, and so it’s our job to represent people.”

And while she’s from California, a blue state frequently criticized by Utah elected officials, she sees a lot of common ground between her constituents and Utahns.

“I’ve been here in Utah a day, but in that time, the things I’ve heard from folks here in Utah are that the cost of housing is too much, the cost of child care is too much, the cost of health care is too much,” she said. “Those are the exact same three things I hear from my constituents in San Diego.”

In addition to Jacobs, the town hall panelists were Utah Democratic Party Chair Brian King, state Rep. Grant Miller, D-Salt Lake City, Utah AFL-CIO President Jeff Worthington, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini and Utah Democratic National Committee member Clare Collard.

Attendees asked questions about how to continue to advocate for Utah unions, whether the state will replace the frozen federal education funds, and solutions for the state’s housing shortage and the ailing Great Salt Lake. But, mostly, what Utahns can expect out of the “big, beautiful bill.”

“Every single one of your senators, despite what they might say about wanting to invest in pro-family policies, they just voted to kick kids off their Medicaid,” she said. “You know, 40% of all births in this country are covered by Medicaid. (With a) really high birth rate here in Utah, it’s pretty important that we have birth covered by health insurance.”

Jacobs also listed other local data to illustrate how the megabill is expected to impact Utahns — 188,000 people will lose health insurance in the state, 12,000 will be at risk of losing food assistance programs, more than 13,000 Utahns may lose their jobs, three rural hospitals may close, and electricity bills are projected to rise about 4%, she said.

Other federal hot-button topics brought up during the night included the increase in funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during natural disasters across the country.

Democratic Party message

While organizers said they hoped people with different political affiliations would engage in the town hall, most of the attendees appeared to align with the panelists, all democrats. The crowd listened with attention and only interrupted speakers to applaud.

But, multiple questions hit on the same theme — what are Democrats in office doing to improve their message during the Trump administration?

For Miller in the Utah House, “it’s not about taking a centrist stance. That’s not what people are looking for,” he said. “They’re looking for leadership.”

For Silvestrini, the party should go back to its working-class roots and focus less on “little things like pronouns,” he said. “We need to do a better job as Democrats of actually not being tuned out to some of the issues that are troubling folks that are not succeeding in our economic system,” Silvestrini said.

But also, Democrats should be addressing issues like immigration, offering humane solutions that allow people to stay in the country with a path to citizenship, while at the same time, watching that the border is enforced.

“I think people are sick of the division in our country. And then if we can put out a message that unites people more, that doesn’t play on those divisions, we will do a better job. And then, our own worst enemies are their own worst enemies,” he added.

For Jacobs, the message has to come from everyone, she said.

“Hot take, we don’t have a leader, and that’s OK,” she said. “And no perfectly poll-tested phrase is going to get us out of the mess that we’re in.”

People speaking to their friends and neighbors, breaking through misinformation is what could add to the coalition, she said.

“We need to be working together to build that broad-based coalition in order to push back and build that better democracy on the other side,” Jacobs said, “and reject the idea that only some of us can get what we need in this country, because it’s not true.”