Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill answered questions from the audience during a town hall Thursday at Missouri Western State University.

Over 150 people filled Western’s Leah Spratt Hall to hear from the democratic senator.  Questions asked ranged from the healthcare debate, proposed budget cuts impacting local communities, LGBT rights, the Keystone Pipeline and McCaskill’s vote against Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court.  McCaskill said she is holding town halls all over the state in mostly areas that voted strongly against her party in the presidential election.

“I’m going to places that are not big democratic counties.  Every place I’m stopping, President Trump won by a wide margin, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show up.  If they want to chew on me, if they want to criticize me, if they want conflict, they’re entitled to that.  I work for them,” McCaskill said. “The people in the state who supported him the most are the people who are getting the short end of the stick, and I want to fight for them.”

The Senator said she know’s she’s the underdog going into the 2018 election.

“I’m used to being the underdog, I’m comfortable being the underdog.  I’ll work as hard as I know how to relate to and communicate with Missourians,” McCaskill said. “I am the last state-wide democrat with the exception of Nichole Galloway who is the auditor.”

McCaskill said she plans to hold many more town halls all over the state.