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LINCOLN — Like his other town halls in recent years, U.S. Rep. Mike Flood dealt with boos and jeers during his roughly hourlong gathering last week in his hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska.
Some in the audience of roughly 200 attendees asked Flood about his stance on federal support for voter-legalized medical marijuana in Nebraska, the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, the state of the economy, the Epstein files and his support for President Donald Trump.
Flood and his team anticipated the reactions of some constituents, much as they did news coverage of the town hall, including stories with headlines such as “GOP Rep Heckled at Trainwreck Town Hall as Trump Backlash Boils Over.” Flood says he isn’t deterred from making his case to his voters in person at town halls, as other congressional Republicans have stopped.
He says he wants his constituents to interact with their government because “nothing gets better if we’re not talking to each other.”
“I feel like it’s part of the job … you’ve got to stand in the town square … I know that there can be a lot of emotion at these; that’s the time we live in,” Flood told the Examiner before his Norfolk town hall.
National Republicans are facing a midterm environment that typically looks rough for the party in power. The former speaker of the Legislature is seeking his third full term this November. He won a special election in 2022, replacing former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry after Fortenberry was convicted of lying to federal investigators about his knowledge of foreign funds illegally donated in 2016 to his congressional campaign. Fortenberry denied wrongdoing, and his convictions were later overturned on a technicality, and the refiled charges were dropped by the Trump administration.
At last week’s gathering, Flood focused on what he described as his bipartisan efforts on the Hill and on the basics of helping constituents through his local offices in eastern Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District. He mentioned his staff helping people file tax returns. He expressed sympathy for some of his constituents’ frustrations.
He drew some applause — and later criticism from some supporters of the president — for saying he doesn’t want to give a “one penny” to a “January 6 insurrectionist” from Trump’s new “anti-weaponization” fund.
A noticeable difference from his 2025 town hall in Lincoln was fewer mentions of Trump’s tax and spending bill, the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The tax law — with new, temporary cuts for the working class and permanent ones for higher earners — was supposed to be the main pitch for congressional Republicans during this year’s midterms.
Flood instead focused on his recently passed bill aimed at streamlining housing regulations and strengthening public-private partnerships to bolster affordable housing projects. Congress is still working out differences between the House and Senate on the bill.
Like some of his GOP colleagues in Congress facing electoral headwinds, Flood also lamented during the town hall being judged for the headlines of the Trump administration and not for the things he does.
“I’m bipartisan, I use common sense … I get that you can turn the TV on any day of the week, and you can get upset by what you see, but I want to be judged on the things that I do,” Flood said, “I want to be judged on the way I conduct myself, and I want to be judged on my bipartisan commonsense results.
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Retiring 2nd Congressional District Rep. Don Bacon said last year that Flood likes to hold in-person town halls to “make the far left look bad.” This time, he asked the crowd whether taxing the rich is a solution after some started shouting “tax the rich.” He also faced some tense exchanges about medical marijuana.
Nathan Brown, a Norfolk resident, asked Flood why he is “lying” about medical marijuana as a drug. Flood told Brown, “Weed is not medicine.”
“Weed is not medicine,” Flood said at the town hall. “We will regret that vote. We will regret that decision. This is not going to be good for children and generations of children … but it is the law, so it should be enforced.”
In an interview before his town hall, Flood sidestepped a question about whether his town halls and the virtual footage of him getting yelled at help the Republicans as a whole in an election year. He said, “Maybe it’s having grown up … having a background in the media … I do know that, for me, nothing gets better unless I show up and have a conversation with people.”
Flood said that while he has to “put up” with outbursts, most people don’t lose “their cool” in his town halls because they want answers to their questions. He owns broadcast and online news outlets, including News Channel Nebraska.
“This is part of the job as I see it, and I’m going to continue doing them,” Flood said of town halls. “I’m sure over my career we’ll have highly emotionally charged town halls, and we’ll have really relaxed town halls.”
Flood’s congressional district comprises all or parts of 12 counties, including heavily Democratic-voting Lincoln in Lancaster County, which is often drowned out by the region’s more conservative rural areas, including Flood’s northeast Nebraska.
Flood has recently gained more influence on the Hill after becoming the chair of the House GOP’s Main Street Caucus last year, which has more than 80 members. He has won his past two elections by 20 and 16 percentage points.
His seat is considered safely Republican by the nonpartisan Center for Politics, The Cook Political Report, and Inside Elections. But a recent poll highlighted by his Democratic opponent, Chris Backemeyer, a former diplomat, indicates a closer race, one within striking distance of Flood in a head-to-head contest.
Backemeyer set up a table outside Flood’s Norfolk town hall and talked to attendees outside about their main concerns, including increased prices, as the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
“Across the district, people are tired of how expensive it is,” Backemeyer told the paper. “This is a trade war that Congressman Flood voted for and is having a real-world impact.”
Flood, when asked about the U.S. blockades in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, acknowledged increased pressure on Americans’ wallets in the economy under Trump’s second term.
“I’ll be the first to tell you, prices are too high right now,” Flood said “It costs too much when you go to the grocery store. It costs too much when you try to buy a new car …everything costs too much, and I don’t want to hide that one bit.”
In the same breath, Flood said he doesn’t “want an Iran with a nuclear weapon.”
The race now has an unusual wrinkle that might cut more than two ways: Registered nonpartisan candidate Austin Ahlman is trying to collect enough signatures to reach the November ballot.
Ahlman released his own poll when he launched his bid on May 14 showing that a nonpartisan candidate could win the district in a head-to-head contest with Flood.
Ahlman, in the same Lincoln story, said Flood’s answers show he is “out of touch.”
“The tone of that town hall was incredibly negative, and it’s because people across the political spectrum are really angry right now,” Ahlman said.
Flood told the Examiner that he hadn’t had time to think of the Ahlman joining the race. He said Backemeyer and Ahlman recently moved back to the state from D.C.
To “represent us,” Flood argued, “you’ve got to be one of us.”
“I’ve lived here my entire life … I feel very connected to the communities that I serve, and I think that goes a long way with people,” Flood said. “I think that connection is really what is going to make my case.”
Flood has two more town halls later this year, one in Bellevue and the last one in Lincoln. The general election is Nov. 3
