Rep. Raul Labrador’s town-hall meeting in Meridian finally ended at a quarter to 10 last night, more than three hours after it started and only after Labrador had given everyone in line a chance to ask him a question, even as the crowd booed and jeered him. “I’m SUPER popular tonight,” he joked at one point, as he bounded across the stage, amid boos, to take the next question.

After it was over, Labrador gathered with reporters for a brief Q-and-A. “I wasn’t planning to stay this late, and I don’t think we can do a town hall this late every time,” he said. But, he said, “I think the passion that you see with these crowds is really good. It’s always good when people are energized and concerned about their country and their communities. And it’s always good to see whether they agree with you or not.”

“I always do town halls,” Labrador said. “I just think it’s a good way to interact with the constituents.”

Often during the evening, he told a questioner, “We’re going to disagree” on one topic or another, including health care. “We just have a fundamental disagreement on what should be the role of the federal government on health care,” he said.

Labrador said he enjoyed the evening. “I love interacting with people – I always think it’s a great thing,” he said, though he acknowledged, “Toward the end I got really tired.”