A town hall meeting was held Saturday by a group of citizens called Action Together Oxford to voice concerns to Representative Trent Kelly and Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran.

While Kelly, Wicker and Cochran were invited multiple times by the group, they were not in attendance at the event held at the Burns-Belfry Museum and Multicultural Center.

According to their offices, all three Republicans were each traveling out of the country as members of congressional delegations. Kelly and Wicker were attending the Winter Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Austria, while Cochran was in Cuba and Columbia.

Jennifer Mizenko, who put the town hall event together, says that they want to set a new date with the officials for April 18.

“We are not a specific group,” Mizenko said. “We are concerned, patriotic citizens, across party lines, who have spontaneously come together.”

State representative Jay Hughes spoke at the event and said that people are “frustrated” with politics in Jackson.

“I’m afraid that it seems like Jackson has gotten to be so much like Washington where they forget that the people are who we represent,” he said. “I see that struggle daily and that is why I try to stay transparent. In many of my (social media) posts I really don’t use the term Republican or Democrat, because it’s about us people.”

He went on to talk about how he believes in Jackson there’s a “virtual lack of transparency”.

“It’s my hope that the senators and representative will learn what I’ve learned,” Hughes added. “That we learn more about listening to people than we do by telling them what we’re going to do as a party. I’ve learned by listening to people who disagree with me than I do from an echo chamber. Your voices together are strong and they will be heard.”