Nebraska MAGAt Mike Flood represents a pretty red district (R+9) that avoids Omaha but includes Lincoln, the other blue bastion in the state. Last year, independent progressive-populist Dan Osborn won the district by two points, while the other Senate race saw Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts win by 18. Trump won the district 55.5% to 42.5%. First elected in 2022, Mike Flood, a former speaker of the state legislature, was reelected 60.1% to 39.9%. So— with greater support than Trump or any of the other candidates who ran in NE-01 last year— Flood felt cocky enough to ignore warnings from MAGA Mike and the NRCC to avoid town hall meetings. Keep in mind something he didn’t— he’s considerably further right than his own constituents… and even though he had a strong win, his unfunded Democratic opponent still had 124,498 votes— more than some Democrats around the country who won seats, like Adam Gray, who the DCCC spent over $10 million on and only garnered 105,554 votes.
That’s beside the point. On Tuesday, Flood marched into a town hall in Columbus, the county seat of blood red Platte County. Trump beat Kamala there 12,326 (79%) to 3,191 (20%). Osborn lost the county with just 30%; Ricketts won his race with 82% and Flood won Platte 12,826 (83%) to 2,600 (17%). It would be hard to find a safer county for him to do a town hall.
Over 200 people showed up at the high school auditorium. Brian Beach, reporting for Nebraska Public Media, wrote that “most questioners were displeased with the actions of Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, criticizing what they perceived as Flood’s inaction to stop them. The congressman fielded several questions about proposed cuts to Medicaid and the federal workforce by referencing the national debt. A giant screen over the stage displayed the $36 trillion dollar figure, ticking upward every few seconds. ‘Ultimately, where we need to go is to a balanced budget,’ Flood said in a response to a question about cuts to National Institutes of Health funding. Boos followed, prompting Flood to ask the crowd, ‘How can you be against a balanced budget?’ Moments later, a ‘tax the rich’ chant was echoing throughout the auditorium.”
Flood made a big mistake by saying “I support Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency,” which prompted the most anger and sustained booing of the event. The only time the crowd seemed happy with Flood was when he broke with Trump and Musk's positions, to back Ukraine and support NATO. The rest of the time, a shocked Flood had to deal with sustained boos and jeers from his Republican constituents. Not surprisingly, Flood’s constituents aren’t excited about the privatization of the post office.
At least Flood won’t be getting one of these billboards from the DNC in his district:
As of yesterday, the DNC had them up in 9 districts, besides Don Bacon’s, just east of Flood’s, Ann Paulina Luna’s and Juan Ciscomani’s, districts represented by Gabe Evans (CO), Rob Bresnahan (PA), Ryan Mackenzie (PA), Ann Wagner (MO), Zack Nunn (IA) and John James (MI).
I doubt many Flood constituents subscribe to Paul Krugman on substack, but at the same time they were booing Mike Flood, Krugman was explaining the crumbling foundation of the kind of MAGA support that gave Trump 59.3% of Nebraska’s votes. “While much of MAGA is motivated by hatred of an open society— by racism, misogyny and the desire to end all things woke— the swing voters who put Donald Trump over the top thought they were supporting a great manager who would fix the economy, reducing grocery prices and restoring good jobs. It was inevitable that they would eventually feel buyers’ remorse, because Trump never had plans to deliver on his economic promises; on the contrary, almost everything he’s trying to do will make the economy worse… I find myself thinking about changing rhetoric about the economy as the stages of Trumpist economic grief. So far they look like this:
1. Prices will come down right away
2. Actually, reducing prices is hard and will take a while
3. Sorry, but we need a painful economic detox
4. Hey, there’s more to life than consumer goods.”
That’s going to be a tough row to hoe, even in Nebraska-- and Wyoming. State media Wyoming media reported this morning that MAGA tool Harriet Hageman ran into a similar situation in Laramie last night. Albany County isn’t as red as the rest of Wyoming but Trump still beat Kamala there and Hageman was reelected by 5 points. “More than 500 people packed into the Gryphon Theatre at the Laramie Civic Center for her town hall, with at least 75% there to oppose her… Things in Laramie turned ugly from the get-go, with some people screaming profanities and flashing the middle finger to Hageman as soon as she took the stage. But Hageman would not back down, staying on stage for more than 45 minutes and telling the audience that they were behaving in an embarrassing manner.”
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