U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz talks with attendees following his town hall session at the Mt. Vernon Community Center on Oct. 18, 2022.

MT. VERNON — U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz found himself in a familiar and friendly town hall meeting Oct. 18 in the Mt. Vernon Community Center as he, his aides and chief of staff continued their tour of the district.

Twenty people attended, and they got a chance to hear updates from their congressman, and to ask questions, plus a bit of face time before Bentz continued on to the next stop on the line.

Bentz is in his first term as representative for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Grant County plus 19 of Oregon’s largest, reddest and most rural counties. He is running for re-election against Democrat Joe Yetter, but he didn’t seem too worried. The district remains solidly Republican, and the election and his opponent in the race didn’t even come up.

The free-flowing talk did touch on a wide swath of issues, from Ukraine and fossil fuels to military spending. Bentz talked off the cuff about some of his current reading, including books on the Greek and Roman influences on the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, calling out a quote from Cicero: “One of the phrases that he uses that every politician should memorize is the further you get up the ladder, the more humbled you should become. And that is absolutely true. And I would suggest, with my observation of certain members of Congress in the Senate, they need to read that.”

The talk several times returned to issues around water, an issue dear to Grant County and familiar to Bentz, who previously served as chair of the Oregon Water Resources Commission and was raised on his family’s cattle ranch in Harney County.

One attendee took time to thank Bentz for his floor speech earlier in the year against the River Democracy Act. That legislation, introduced by Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, has been a critical issue for Bentz, one he’s fought hard against.

Bentz and his chief of staff went on to update the room on their continuing efforts to stymie that bill, explaining some of the behind-the-scenes of how they worked with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., to keep it from getting out of Senate committee before the current recess.

There was a bit of cautious optimism between the crowd and Bentz about the prospect of flipping the House of Representatives to Republican control in the days ahead, with Bentz spending some time complimenting Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on his fundraising prowess and explaining just how important finding cash is to winning. Bentz said he spends roughly two hours each day “calling poor, unfortunate souls — like Ken here,” but added that that money is the key to buying TV and cellphone ads, which lead to electoral victory.

“Should we take the majority in (the Nov. 8 election), we’ll be trying to figure out what to focus on because there’s so many things to make you mad,” Bentz said.