Constituents in Iowa’s Second District on Wednesday met GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson with boos, jeers and laughs during a town hall in Decorah, Iowa, on Wednesday.
The crowd’s jeers began during Hinson’s prepared remarks at the beginning of the town hall.
“I think it’s important to note that when we look at last year, when we look at the election, I think Americans overwhelmingly rejected the status quo for the country. We were seeing an open border, high inflation, we were seeing men and women in Iowa and in our country feel like their voices were not heard,” Hinson told the crowd, which booed after she mentioned high inflation.
“The president is, I believe, fighting for you and fighting for me,” Hinson added. The crowd responded with jeers and people shouting “No!”
The crowd’s reaction comes as several other Republican lawmakers have faced hostile crowds at town halls this year.
Near the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, GOP members of Congress in Texas, Kansas and North Carolina were met with boos and jeers when talking about Trump and his advisor Elon Musk’s decisions to slash the federal workforce. And earlier this week, Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., was also grilled by constituents at a town hall in his district.
In her prepared remarks on Wednesday, Hinson told the crowd that she was “proud” to vote for the sweeping Trump agenda bill — dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill” — in the House last week, which seeks to extend the president’s 2017 tax cuts, beef up spending for the milit and border security, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime work and slash funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
After touting her vote for the legislation, Hinson was met with major boos and jeers, forcing her to pause her speech.
“This is your time,” she told the crowd in response to their boos, adding, “I’m here to clean up lots of the misinformation out there today.”
The crowd laughed as she responded to their negative reactions.
Multiple times during the question and answer portion of the town hall, the crowd booed or laughed when the congresswoman mentioned her support for Trump.
One question in particular riled up the crowd, when a constituent asked about “corruption in Washington,” specifically citing the Trump administration’s decision to accept a luxury jet as a gift from Qatar and Trump’s decision to host a dinner for those who spent millions of dollars on his meme coin.
Attendees cheered while the man asked his question, including his insinuation that, “There’s lots of reasons why somebody like you might be silent. You might be scared to say something. You might actually like to see the corruption … or you might not care about it.”
“Can you help me understand why you are silent about this corruption?” he added.
“I think it’s really unfair to imply that I like to see corruption in Washington D.C.,” Hinson answered while the crowd clamored.
“I’m here answering your questions in public because I care about transparency and accountability and doing things the right way, she added, later telling the man who asked the question, “I’m answering your question. You may not like my answer and that’s your right to not like my answer.”
Several members of the crowd also shouted that Hinson was a “fraud” later in the town hall, after a man asking a question accused the president and his cabinet of “breaking laws by ignoring federal judge’s orders.”
“When are you going to do the responsibility that you were elected for by holding the executive branch accountable up to and including impeachment?” the man asked Hinson.
“Judges need to follow the law. I don’t think this country needs another impeachment charade,” Hinson answered, to which the crowd shouted, “No.”
As she alleged “egregious abuses” by several federal judges who have paused or halted certain presidential executive actions and pledged to work with presidents of either party to achieve common goals, members of the crowd clamored and shouted, “You are a fraud.”
A spokesperson for Hinson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the town hall.
