Sel Mpang sat in front of her peers and politicians-in-the running in Greensboro. As she’s thinking about voting, she’s thinking about the economy.
Her personal economy has gotten worse in the past few years, she said.
Mpang said that when she was in college four years ago, she could buy groceries for much less, but now the same amount costs significantly more.
“Maybe I don’t know the jargon for how we talk about economics, but it impacts me every single day,” Mpang said.
On Oct. 7 and 8, Triad City Beat hosted two “reverse town halls,” one in Greensboro and one in Winston-Salem. Instead of voters asking candidates questions about their platforms and policies, TCB decided to ask voters what issues matter the most to them and why.
Triad City Beat is an alternative weekly that has been expanding its daily news coverage of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. The publication was in Cohort 6 of UNC-Knight Table Stakes in 2022-23, and participated in the Elections Funnel training cohort at UNC in 2024.
Throughout the Greensboro event, a panel of four voters answered questions covering a range of civic issues from healthcare and public education to housing costs and the economy.
In the audience, more than 50 people, including candidates for offices like the N.C. House and Guilford County Board of Education, listened to the panel’s responses and submitted their own thoughts and experiences through a live, interactive poll on-stage.
More than 40 people attended the Winston-Salem event, including candidates for races including governor and Forsyth County Commissioner.
Both events were bipartisan with a small percentage of Republicans present at both town halls.
Managing Editor Sayaka Matsuoka said the idea for the reverse town hall isn’t new, but rather something she saw other outlets do and thought would be beneficial for Guilford and Forsyth counties. She said she reached out to The Current, a paper in Louisiana, for help.
Matsuoka said that while newsrooms have been producing voter guides for years, there has been a shift to center voters throughout election season. The goal for a reverse town hall is to center audiences’ voices over politicians’ talking points, she said.
Triad City Beat, Matsuoka said, often calls itself the “people’s paper,” so the decision to host the reverse town hall fell in line with their mission.
“I think that journalism is the most impactful when people can read your story and see themselves in the shoes of a person who’s at the center of that story, or they feel like they can relate to or empathize with the subject of that story, especially when we’re talking about complicated issues like housing, maybe the economy,” Matsuoka said.
Matsuoka said the event went beyond presenting facts to hearing how people are impacted by issues, promoting greater understanding of the democratic process and how it affects people.
Panelist Alex Mitchell also said that the economy seriously impacts his daily life.
Mitchell said before the pandemic, he only needed one job. Now, he said he has three.
“I thought job stacking was a Gen Z thing — no,” Mitchell said. “Job stacking is for almost the average American now.”
Matsuoka said she was surprised by how many community members came to listen to the voters instead of candidates.
“After the event, we had several of the panelists say, ‘Hey, this is really great. Like, thank you so much for inviting us on the panel. Because, I have never done anything like this, and people don’t typically ask me what is important to me,” Matsuoka said.
Next time, the event would benefit from more preparation time, Matsuoka said.
The entire event came together in two weeks, Matsuoka said, but more voters would have attended if there was more lead time.
“I hope to do this again next year or with any other elections,” Matsuoka said. “I would like to start it like two months out and not have to crunch it in within two weeks.”
Following the event, Matsuoka said she received a lot of positive feedback. Many candidates told her the event gave them an interesting opportunity to actually listen to voters. The candidates had an opportunity to speak at the end and to talk to audience members one-on-one afterwards.
“I was expecting more candidates to maybe not be as excited about the event, but the candidates were really excited about the opportunity to just be able to sit and listen,” Matsuoka said.
Overall, Matsuoka said the reverse town hall model is something she would like to see other newsrooms embrace. She said she feels like it makes voters feel heard.
“I think that this is a model that could work for any newsroom, especially local, independent newsrooms who have a strong connection with their community,” Matsuoka said.