Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood faces toughest crowd yet at Lincoln town hall
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Flood speaks during a town hall on Tuesday at Nebraska Wesleyan University’s Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts. (Arthur Trickett-Wile/Lincoln Journal Star)
By Anna Kleiber, Lincoln Journal Star
(July 28, 2026)
Nearly an hour before the doors opened for Rep. Mike Flood's Lincoln town hall Tuesday night, attendees began lining up outside the Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts at Nebraska Wesleyan University with signs and flyers in hand.
Emily Kutler, the regional organizing director for Nebraska For Us, said her organization planned a "silent protest" outside of the event to "bring attention to cuts Flood voted for."
"Mike Flood voted to cut SNAP, voted to cut Medicaid, voted for tariffs, voted for the war in Iran and has ultimately been at the forefront of raising prices," she said. "For Americans and for Nebraskans, it's clear that he prioritizes billionaires over hardworking Nebraskans."
Kutler was just one of dozens who braved the heat to protest the congressman and his policies.
Inside the Vance D. Rogers Center for Fine Arts, hundreds of Nebraskans packed into the O'Donnell Auditorium for Flood's final town hall of the year in Lincoln — the biggest city in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District.
The 90-minute town hall marked Flood's toughest crowd yet this year, drawing fierce backlash that rivaled the crowds at both his Bellevue and Norfolk town halls earlier this year.
Attendees didn't wait for Flood to start talking before they started heckling and shouting.
"What happened to separation of church and state?" one attendee yelled after the invocation, while another handful yelled "for all," emphasizing the final words of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Flood opened the 90-minute town hall by touting the bipartisan housing reform bill he helped craft that became the first major housing legislation in roughly three decades to become law.
"I'm proud to tell you that the most sweeping housing legislation in 36 years passed the United States Congress," Flood said. "I find ways to work with people. I find ways to respect other people, and I work with members of both parties that are interested in changing the policy."
Following his opening remarks, the Republican congressman navigated questions from attendees on a wide range of topics including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, immigration policy and voting rights.
Flood defended President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he says provided working Americans with the largest tax cut in U.S. history.
"That bill was for the working class of America," said Flood, who was met with shouts of "that's bull****" and "that's a lie."
On the changes made to Medicaid access, Flood said people who are in the county illegally and people who are able to work but choose not to should not get free healthcare.
"That is what the majority of Nebraskans think," Flood said, defending the bill's more controversial measures, including more than $1 trillion worth of cuts from Medicaid over the next decade along with cuts to federal nutrition aid.
Despite the president threatening to tank the monumental housing legislation unless Congress passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, SAVE America Act, Flood continued to back the president's push for greater election safeguards.
Flood said that he supports the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and mandate voters present a valid photo ID to vote in federal elections.
"It's not too much to ask to show an ID when you vote. There are states in this nation, and I'm not saying Nebraska, where we have people that are in this country without authorization that are voting," Flood said. "I want a free and fair election. A free and fair election helps breed confidence for our democracy. I think that's important."
At a table outside the event, Democratic nominee Chris Backemeyer met and chatted with voters as they headed into the town hall.
"We're here to hear from them, and I'm not going in," Backemeyer said. "My platform comes from people that are concerned, and what they want to see out of their representatives. That is what this job's supposed to be."
Ahead of the event, Flood and Backemeyer shook hands and exchanged a few words.
"He said he respects the race I'm running, and we talked about possibly doing a debate," Backemeyer said of Flood. "We've got a few invitations out there, so I think it's just for our teams to figure out the time, and we can put our views up against one another."
