{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-hosts-common-grounds-with-senator-welch-listening-session-in-essex-county/", "Welch Hosts \u2018Common Grounds with Senator Welch\u2019 Listening Session in\u00a0Essex\u00a0County", "2026-08-25", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "ISLAND POND, VT \u2013 U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) this morning hosted a \u2018Common Grounds with Senator Welch\u2019 listening session at the scenic outdoor pavilion at Lakeside Park in Essex County. Vermonters joined Senator Welch for a discussion about how Washington can work better for the Green Mountain State.\n\n\u201cThe world we\u2019re in is completely different than the world we grew up in and that we inhabited only five or ten years ago. You know, we all have political points of view on health care, on the environment, on poverty, on education\u2014and we debate those. But in the past, we also had common reference points\u2014we believed in the rule of law, we believed in courtesy to our neighbors, we believed in free and fair elections and accepted the outcome of those elections. Those days are behind us. And it\u2019s a jump ball as to what happens when we come out on the other side. And that\u2019s the real contest of what\u2019s going on in our country right now. The basic norms that all of us depended on to help us get through our differences have been shattered,\u201d said Senator Welch.\n\n\u201cThe biggest challenges that we have here\u2014like health care, housing, education, social media\u2014are not unique to Vermont, and they\u2019re not unique to blue states or red States,\u201d the Senator continued. \u201cThey\u2019re shared problems. And in Vermont we look at what the challenges are and we face them together. Sure, we\u2019ll have a debate about how best to address them. But we always start from the proposition that the problems we have to solve are shared, and that we want to solve them for the well-being of our community and for the future of our kids.\u201d\n\nSenator Welch has hosted Common Grounds events in Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, and Windsor counties, and will host listening sessions in every county of Vermont in 2026. Sign up for the Senator\u2019s newsletter here to learn more about his upcoming events in Vermont.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-26T05:33:32Z", "2026-08-26T05:34:56Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-hosts-common-grounds-with-senator-welch-listening-session-in-essex-county/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8783647790551186, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}