The interrogation started right out of the gate.

Karen Maitland was the first of many who stepped up the microphone at the front of Concord High School’s auditorium. Facing New Hampshire’s new congresswoman, Maggie Goodlander, who stood on the stage a few feet away, Maitland urged her to hold other elected officials accountable – and to get the Democratic Party’s act together.

Maitland said she wasn’t surprised by President Donald Trump or Republican’s actions in recent weeks, but threats to things like federal funding for public schools and voting rights still concern her. She was more irked by the inaction of Democrats.

“I don’t follow sports, but I know good coaches have playbooks, and they follow them. I’m going to encourage you and the rest of your party to get a playbook together and to start following it,” said Maitland, a retired teacher. “I feel like we’re being played … I’m looking for you and your other colleagues in the Democratic Party to take the helm of the ship and get it back on course.”

Maitland’s comments struck a chord with the roughly 200 other people who came to ask questions of Goodlander Wednesday night. People said they’re angry at congressional Democrats and demanded answers from Goodlander on what Congress – and civilians – can do to keep Trump’s power in check. Many said they felt their representatives in Congress have no united strategy to fight back against Trump, Republican leadership, or Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

Despite a close presidential race in New Hampshire last year, anger over national politics has spilled into the streets of Concord recently, with at least five protests occurring downtown in the two months since Trump’s inauguration. Each one has drawn several hundred rally-goers.

Lisa Perrone, from Hillsborough, said she calls federal offices in Washington, D.C. every day during her lunch break and after work. They often don’t answer.

“I am doing my part. I feel let down,” Perrone said, garnering applause from the crowd. “There is no fight in the Democratic Party anymore.”

Goodlander said she welcomed those questions and shared their concerns but evaded specifics on what she and fellow members of Congress plan to do counter Republican actions or work with them to achieve some of their goals. The crowd grew more worked up as people began to shout their questions from the crowd and formed a longer line at the microphone.

Goodlander said she is talking to as many New Hampshire residents as she can to put a human face on the threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. She also echoed audience members’ concerns over Trump, Musk and Project 2025 and repeatedly said she’s searching for bipartisan solutions to those concerns.

“I’m going to work with anyone who will work with me,” Goodlander said. “What I’m hearing tonight is … holy anger. It’s holy anger, and we’ve got to harness together to get the job done.”

Some people said they’re upset with Democratic senators who voted for a Republican- and Trump-backed government funding bill. The legislation got two more votes than it needed to pass the Senate.

Both of New Hampshire’s senators voted for the bill. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan both said in press releases that they did so because allowing a government shutdown would be too dangerous. They said it’d give Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency all the ammunition it needs, and a lack of oversight, to fire more federal workers and shutter more federal programs and funding.

Their votes also created a rift within the party.

Shaheen’s office declined an interview request from the Monitor and Hassan’s office did not respond.

Goodlander, who voted against that funding bill, told the Monitor she saw it as “another partisan stopgap” that included no protections for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and community investments that are important for New Hampshire residents. Facing the choice between a potential government shutdown and the bill, Goodlander said Republicans presented “two terrible options.”

“We have got to use every tool we have. We have to create leverage wherever we possibly can create it to fight this fight,” Goodlander said of her vote. “Our constitution is being tested like it’s never been tested before, and we have got to be clear and completely relentless in the way that we are governing.”

Goodlander said she joined the U.S. House of Representatives Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group, in which she’s using her background as a lawyer to help shape litigation against Trump’s executive orders. For example, she said, she and other members of Congress submitted an amicus brief in a federal court case to support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is tasked with holding banks and financial institutions accountable and making sure customers are treated fairly. That agency was created by Congress but is now targeted for cuts by Musk, Goodlander said. The matter is now tied up in court.

“I can tell you, from my time working inside of the federal courts … these are briefs that judges read,” Goodlander said in an interview with the Monitor. “When Congress creates a department or agency, the president cannot just destroy it with the stroke of a pen or with a Tweet.”

Though Goodlander stressed a commitment to bipartisanship and working together, some members of the crowd said they don’t feel like that’s an option anymore.

People also wanted more direction from elected leaders on what everyday citizens can do to help. Goodlander told them to protest, call their representatives and do everything they can to make their voices heard. She also said she’ll be joining the next protest organized by the 50 States, 50 Protests, 1 Day group on April 5, though she didn’t specify whether she’ll be in D.C. or at the New Hampshire State House.

As people continue to protest and speak out, they said they want to know that Congress will be in the trenches with them.

“Yes, we need to go to rallies. Yes, we need to show up. You need to get on five calls every day and make those phone calls. You need to write the words. You need to send the emails,” Maitland said. “But while we’re out here screaming into the void, we need to hear Congress screaming into the void as well.”

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly.