If you are of a certain age, that is to say, old, you have likely heard the expression “an Average Joe” to describe someone who is, well, average. A recent Colorado Politics article highlighted a certain Joe who is very much not your average Joe, a fellow named Joe Neguse.

Neguse, for those of you that live outside of Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, is a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing CD2, north of Denver in the greater Boulder area and a bit beyond. It is a safe-Democratic seat, and U.S. Rep. Neguse has been the congressman from there since he succeeded the previous rep, a fellow named Jared Polis.

Neguse has won four times, each a landslide, and at 41 is one of the youngest and, I believe, brightest stars in the Dem party. He’s already achieved the role of assistant minority leader, the fourth-highest position, and that’s remarkable.

But there is something else Neguse does, as noted in the article, no other member of the Colorado House delegation does, GOP or Dem, and that is show up to lots and lots of town hall meetings.

Now, in my own brief and unsuccessful run for the congress here for CD5 in 2008, a safe-GOP seat, I admit there were groups and crowds I wasn’t especially excited about meeting. During that same election, while he was still in law school at CU, Neguse ran for and won a seat on the CU Board of Regents. I can’t help but wonder if that made for some awkward meetings with his professors.

But, as noted, in 2018, Neguse ran for the vacant CD2 seat and won handily. Now, if you are a person elected to a safe seat, practically speaking, the only way you are likely to lose a reelection effort is by making a major mistake that offends the public. The smart candidate with a massive lead keeps his or her head down.

Hence, for example, in my 2008 race against then-incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, I was rebuffed at my effort to have a total of eight debates with Mr. Lamborn, one in each of the counties then in the district, and two in El Paso County. His counteroffer was a single debate, three days before the election, after most people had already voted by mail. That was a smart strategy, in that if he did make a major mistake, it likely wouldn’t hurt himself too badly at the polls.

So, you might expect Neguse to also hide from the public, lay low and just wait for each reelection cycle to roll around. But if you think he did that, you don’t know Joe Neguse. Oh, and by the way, I don’t know him; I’ve never met him, but you take my point.

Neguse, as reported in CoPo, just finished his 17th town hall this year, which is far more than all the Colorado House delegation combined. Earlier in 2025, Neguse notched his 100th town hall since taking office in 2019. Those are startling and staggering numbers. Most recently he appeared in the cold for roughly 70 folks at the fire station in Granby, a town with a population of 2,305. Given the district dynamics, Neguse certainly could have skipped that small (but lovely) town and would have done no damage to his reelection efforts. But he went anyway.

In an era when GOP representatives are avoiding town hall meetings at all costs, Neguse’s efforts stand out. You would think his “counterpart,” in that he holds a safe GOP seat, Jeff Crank, would be out there holding town hall events to stir up the MAGA crowds. And though AI search engines are certainly capable of error, when asked how many town hall meetings U.S. Rep. Crank has hosted, the bot replies:” There is no information available on Jeff Crank’s specific town hall meetings since he took office.” I found evidence he has held one telephone town hall, but there was a kerfuffle about whether he was taking actual questions as several folks reported when they tried to dial it, they got an automatic message saying questions had been cut off.

If Crank has, in fact, held lots of in-person town hall meetings, I apologize, but I’m guessing that in any case, the number of meetings Crank has held is less than 17 this year. So, come on Jeff, let’s get out there, to in-person town halls to defend your president’s actions like, gee, I dunno, moving Space Command to Alabama.

Oh, and on the Senate side, my old boss U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has held quite a few, more than a dozen as early as March of this year. I can’t find the exact total to date, but it looks like Bennet and Neguse are the most outgoing of our elected leaders, at least as far as in-person town halls go.

I suspect Joe Neguse is on his way to senior leadership in the Democratic party, and frankly, the sooner the better. We desperately need younger blood, and Neguse will likely be part of that leadership. We are fortunate to have at least some of our elected representatives believe in town halls.

I wish Jeff Crank would do more, though with a POTUS popularity at its lowest ever, at 37% and 72% stating the economy is in poor shape, I can see why Crank would prefer to keep his head down, especially during the GOP shutdown.

Will more electeds start showing up to meet their constituents? Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.