Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey may have been re-elected in a state that also went narrowly for Donald Trump last November, but his constituents aren’t going to let him get comfortable:
“Tuesdays With Toomey” began relentlessly the moment U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., won re-election in November — a protest by dozens that in two months has grown to hundreds of people gathering weekly outside his office in downtown Philadelphia to ask a simple question:
“Do you hear me now?” [...]
The public pressure has been so great that last week protesters gathered outside the Delaware County Republican Finance Committee Annual Chairman’s Club Dinner to pressure Toomey, the guest of honor. He was a no-show at the event.
This Tuesday, Toomey’s vote in favor of Betsy DeVos for education secretary drew boos from the group. One Philadelphia woman had drawn attention to the $60,050 in contributions Toomey has gotten from the DeVos family by starting a GoFundMe page to “buy Sen. Toomey’s vote”—the page raised $72,697. (But since it’s illegal to bribe a senator outright vs. buying influence gradually over years as the DeVos family has done, the money will be donated to three nonprofit organizations.)
While Toomey isn’t up for re-election until 2022, the 2018 elections will decide who’s in the governor’s mansion and the state legislature when the next round of redistricting rolls around.