VENICE -- U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney planned a relatively low-key day meeting with constituents in Englewood and Venice Thursday.

The congressman’s schedule had him teaching an advanced civics class at Lemon Bay High School in the morning before a private lunch with community leaders at Venice City Hall.

But liberal activists got word about the Venice meeting. They had been calling and emailing Rooney’s office, trying to meet with him in person and share their concerns about President Donald Trump, repealing the Affordable Care Act and several other issues. They jumped at the opportunity to pressure him directly for a town hall.

By lunchtime a crowd of roughly 300 activists had gathered outside Venice City Hall carrying signs and chanting slogans. Before they dispersed, Rooney, an Okeechobee Republican whose district includes southern Sarasota County, had agreed to hold a town hall and the crowd was applauding him.

The scene in Venice Thursday was the latest in a string of confrontations this week between GOP members of congress and activists on the left. Congress is on recess this week, the first time since Trump’s election that lawmakers have had an extended period to meet with constituents back home. Liberal activists seized on the recess to express their displeasure with the new administration.

A GOP congressman’s town hall in New Jersey drew more than 1,000 people Wednesday. On the same day a crowd of 2,000 came out for a Republican senator’s town hall in Arkansas. Both events featured screaming and heckling from agitated activists, according to news reports.

Several protests have targeted U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, this week. Buchanan is out of the country on an official trip that includes visiting with troops in Afghanistan, but he told the Herald-Tribune last week that he soon will hold a town hall.

Town halls have not been a regular feature of Rooney’s constituent outreach in recent years.

Instead, the congressman has focused on meeting with community members in a variety of other settings, from chamber of commerce events to veterans’ ceremonies.

In addition to the two events Thursday, his recess schedule included three appearances Wednesday at various events, including the Charlotte County Republican Executive Committee meeting and a medal ceremony for a Korean War veteran in Polk County. Rooney’s district includes nine counties. Some of these events had been scheduled for months, his staff noted, while the calls for a town hall only picked up in recent weeks, they said.

Rooney initially seemed skeptical of holding a town hall in the current political climate. He told the Herald-Tribune last week: "I don't know that a circus helps anybody but it gets certain people on TV.” He worried that organized groups were “coming in from out of town to disrupt” and manufacture political theater, not productive dialogue.

But as more people began to ask for the town hall, the congressman decided to work it into his schedule, said spokeswoman Meghan Rodgers.

“His constituents want to talk and have a dialogue with them and he’s going to give them that,” Rodgers said.

Rooney announced his plans for a town hall as he was walking into Venice City Hall. Ron Feinsod, a 65-year-old Venice retiree from New Jersey who founded a local Indivisible activist group, approached Rooney and began asking for a meeting. Rooney quickly agreed.

“Let’s do a town hall so you guys can be inside, have a chair, have a microphone and let’s do this the right way,” said Rooney, who drew cheers from the crowd when he pledged to hold a town hall before the end of March.

Rooney then walked through the crowd of protesters, shaking hands and speaking briefly with some of them.

“I give him credit for stopping and talking and I appreciate the fact that he agreed to have a meeting with us,” Feinsod said afterward.

Feinsod said he expects his group to bring up a variety of issues at the town hall.

“We want to talk about our concerns about the Trump administration and the Trump cabinet in regards to the EPA, women’s rights, health care, education,” he said.

Feinsod said the protesters are “not looking for confrontation, we are looking for cooperation.”

“We are not looking for fights,” he added. “We are not looking for yelling matches. We are adults. We are people with serious concerns.”

Protesters carried dozens of signs. One read “Liar Liar Trump Pants on Fire.” Another: “OMG GOP WTF!” There were chants of “No tax returns no trust” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”

Rooney’s staff said the last time they could recall him holding a town hall was when the Affordable Care Act was being passed. The ACA likely will be a big part of his upcoming town hall as well. Rooney supports repealing the health care law but not without a replacement.

Many in the crowd were sharply critical of efforts to repeal the law.

Venice resident Doug Sahlin, 65, stood in the background of the protest. He did not have a sign and was not chanting slogans. Sahlin said he’d never called a member of Congress before this year, but he is deeply worried about repealing the ACA.

Sahlin’s wife died of cancer in August. The manager of a veterinary clinic, she could not afford health insurance before the ACA. She signed up for a subsidized health plan shortly before she was diagnosed in April 2014.

Sahlin believes his wife would not have lived for more than two years with cancer if not for the ACA.

“The way I look at it this is just a big tax cut for Trump’s billionaire buddies,” Sahlin said. “The people who need health care won’t have it and it’s going to cost a lot of lives.”