Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood (R) hosted his latest public town hall Tuesday, still confronting tough crowds similar to those which spurred viral moments over the last year.
The town square-style forum, hosted at Bellevue West High School, was set for an hour, but ran about 90 minutes to accommodate the line of constituents wishing to direct questions and comments toward the Republican representative of Nebraska’s 1st congressional district.
While the rancour of this most recent town hall paled in comparison to Flood’s 2025 town hall in Lincoln—which made national news—voters still expressed their discontent, loudly, with the Republican party’s national agenda and their representative’s tacit, at times explicit, support of it.
Following an obligatory invocation, pledge of allegiance, and student rendition of the national anthem, Flood offered brief opening remarks before answering pre-submitted and live audience questions.
In his opening, Flood tried to set a noncombative tone, saying “It doesn’t matter what political party you’re in. Tonight, more important than anything else, we’re all Americans, and I’m going to treat you with the utmost respect.”
The Norfolk native statesman mainly platformed his recently spearheaded bipartisan legislative effort, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, aimed at combating America’s housing shortage. The bill (H.R. 6644) was agreed upon by both the US House and Senate last month and now awaits the president’s signature. Flood also mentioned efforts to wrangle increased funding for Offutt Air Force Base and agriculture research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Then came time for constituent questions.
The crowd reacted with applause and cheers to the first question of the night, read from a card by the town hall moderator—former state senator Chris Langemeier.
“Congressman, why do you continue to support the administration that breaks the law or ignores the law while making billions at our expense?”
“I firmly believe in the rule of law… I understand that you may have disagreements with the president. However, know this, I am one of the leading sponsors of a bill that would stop stock trading among members of Congress. And if given the opportunity, I would extend that to members of the executive branch as well,” Flood responded, to the audience’s general approval.
Flood was then asked to respond to recent comments made by US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R), casting doubt on the 14th amendment which guarantees citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the US.
While Flood said he wasn’t aware of Johnson’s comment, he said “my opinion is that the 14th Amendment is pretty clear. If you’re born inside the United States, you are a citizen of the United States. That can be changed with an amendment to the Constitution. But I have not heard of anybody endeavoring upon that.”
The event continued with a barrage of questions pertaining to topics ranging from immigration to the fallout from the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Flood voted in favor of and defended to the audience, drawing loud boos in reaction.
“We protected a system that if it had gone unchecked, it would not have been long-term available for the very people that are the most vulnerable, the developmentally disabled, the persistently mentally ill, people that are of advanced age,” Flood said, in a response to a question about benefits for people with disabilities. “We protected Medicaid in a bipartisan, common-sense way. That was the result.”
In response to a question about cuts made to the food assistance program SNAP, Flood stated that the OBBB cut $2 trillion from the national deficit, and introduced tax cuts on overtime pay, tipped wages, and social security benefits. These remarks were shouted down by the crowd.
Speaking on SNAP earlier in the event, Flood said “I want people that are food insecure to get resources.” He encouraged those struggling to contact his office.
Not every response from Flood was so poorly received by the audience. When asked “When are you going to change immigration laws to help immigrants now?” Flood said, “I think it’s safe to say today that we have the safest, most secure border that we’ve had in 50 years.” His response was met with some applause of approval as well as dissenting shouts from the crowd.
The topic of the US relationship with Israel was also raised. One in-person questioner told Flood: “You don’t represent me, the average American. You represent rich donors in AIPAC”—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, one of the country’s most powerful bipartisan lobbying organizations. According to the campaign finance tracking website Track AIPAC, an effort of a grassroots activist group, Flood has accepted over $48,000 from pro-Israel political action committees through April 2026.
“I want to be very clear. We have no greater ally in the Middle East than Israel,” Flood said in response, triggering thunderous boos and shouts from the crowd.
Those heckles continued under his repetition of the events of October 7, 2023—when Hamas militants breached the Israel-Gaza barrier, killing approximately 1,200 people (828 civilians and 369 security force members among them). Flood made no mention of the subsequent Israeli counteroffensive, which has killed at least 73,110, with 173,599 others injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“We are cleaning up the Middle East,” Flood said. “Iran, for 50 years, has vowed death to America. If they got their hands on a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb, they would use it on us. We need to finish the job. We cannot put up with a regime that in the last 12 months has killed 45,000 of their own people. That is wrong. We have to have moral clarity here. I support Israel.”
That figure of over 40,000 protesters being killed by the Iranian government during nationwide demonstrations from Jan. 8-9 has been widely disputed.
A woman who identified herself as Katie from Lincoln later told Flood she appreciated his “coordination” with US Sen. Pete Ricketts and Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers to oppose the federal rescheduling of marijuana. She asked if he would “commit to continuing your efforts on the federal level to keep marijuana as a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical use so we can start clawing back state marijuana laws across the nation?”
Flood paused, preparing his answer.
“I think we made a grave mistake at the ballot box when we expanded medical marijuana,” a statement met with more boos and displeased shouting. “It’s a slippery slope… I run into people that live on the East Coast that say the minute they let that weed into their state, it has more or less paralyzed a lot of young men that end up living into their 20s in their parents’ basement, smoking the weed, looking at the online porn.”
The crowd continued to boo, until Flood ameliorated them.
“That said, the voters of this state did vote to have medical marijuana. And I may not agree with it, but that is their decision as the state of Nebraska. The people that voted for that have every right to expect the state to set up a system to carry out the will of a majority of the voters that changed the law.”
When some interactions between attendees became tense, Flood tried to recenter the crowd.
“Democracy is messy, right? Here we are. We’re at the intersection. We’re at the town square,” he said.
In offering closing remarks, Flood said: “Regardless of where you’re at on the political spectrum, I respect each and every one of you. Ultimately, I will remain in the town square and I will do the best job I can explaining to you where I’m at on these issues. The fact that you’re here, regardless of your position, tells me that you care.”
Attendees approached the stage after the events to thank the Congressman and shake his hand, others using the opportunity to continue their line of questioning.
This was Flood’s second town hall of the year, following one in Norfolk hosted in May. He will host his third and final town hall later this year, with the date and location still to be announced.
You can watch the full 90-minute townhall with Flood on the News Channel Nebraska YouTube page.
