Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil was met by a hostile crowd attempting to shout him down Thursday evening during his first town hall gathering since the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Some supporters left early calling the spectacle “disgusting,” while one Democratic activist said the Janesville Republican “got what he deserved” for being a rubber stamp for Trump and the GOP.
The Elkhorn High School auditorium was filled with around 200 people, some of whom carried signs with slogans like “Resist,” “God is King no Others” and “Hands off SSI and Medicare.” When he entered the stage, Steil was met a by a roar of boos mixed with some cheers from a smaller group of his supporters.
The town hall was raucous as the audience repeatedly overpowered Steil’s microphone. He paused often while urging the crowd to stay civil and allow him to answer a series of questions out of respect to those who asked them.
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The questions touched on a wide range of issues from federal funding for cancer research, Trump’s broad-ranging tariffs being enacted without congressional approval and the immigration arrests by masked ICE agents “disappearing” people.
One attendee questioned the morality of deportation raids during Trump’s second term.
“What I see happening to our immigrant population embarrasses me, horrifies me, and you have not raised your voice to complain about it,” she told Steil. “I see no leadership. I see following Trump 100 percent of the time.”
In response, Steil lauded Trump’s executive orders and deportations.
“What I see as moral hazard was created by (former President Joe) Biden by allowing the U.S.-Mexico border to remain unsecure,” Steil said, as he was drowned out by a roar of boos that lasted roughly 10 seconds.
“I think we need to secure the U.S.-Mexico border,” Steil continued after the crowd quieted. “You may not. It’s fine that we disagree.”
On tariffs, a man from Elkhorn said he was always under the impression that Congress must be involved, which was met with loud cheers. He then asked “what dire economic circumstances” put Trump in a position to issue them without congressional approval.
Steil didn’t get into specifics about the role of Congress, but said the overall goal of the Trump administration is “to make sure that other countries are treating the United States fairly.” He called China an “egregious abuser” of U.S. trade policies across multiple administrations. When asked again why the president is going it alone, Steil referenced an ongoing legal battle over whether Trump needs Congress’ blessing.
The shouting, the boos and overall chaos was too much for Walworth County resident Carol Stanczak who walked out of the auditorium about halfway through the question-and-answer session. She told WPR she came to have questions answered, but Steil was “road blocked by people screaming and hollering.”
“You know, I don’t know if these people are paid to come in here and be jerks,” Stanczak said. “This is not the American way. Let the man speak!”
She said Steil is a good leader who is committed to and concerned about his constituents. She said the audience’s behavior only strengthened her support.
“I’ll fight harder,” Stanczak said.
Another Steil supporter, Kevin Roblee of Lake Geneva, stood at the back of the auditorium and occasionally shouted at the crowd to let Steil answer questions. He said Walworth County is “a conservative county, and this is the fist time I’ve ever seen this kind of rhetoric coming out of the audience.” He said the dialogue “seems to be against Trump, rather than what Bryan Steil is doing in Congress, which is much more important and relevant.”
“This has nothing to do with Bryan Steil or his efforts in Congress, and that’s why I’m upset,” Roblee said.
Retired AFSCME union staff member and current organizer Mary Burpee of Elkhorn saw the town hall differently. She said she wasn’t surprised to see the anger leveled at Steil because constituents like her have been “demanding” he hold an in-person town hall “for many months, almost a year now.”
“Normally, I would be of the persuasion that there should be some decorum that, you know, let your representative speak,” Burpee said. “But I think he deserved this today, and I say that because he’s given the middle finger to his constituents for so long. And I think the passage of that horrible, big, beautiful bull**** bill has got people so angry, and it’s already passed. So people are frustrated.”
Days before Thursday’s town hall, Burpee was part of a mock funeral procession that included a cardboard coffin left at the front door of Steil’s home in Janesville, which made national news Wednesday evening. She said the coffin represented the “death of democracy,” and was in no way meant as a threat against Steil or his family.
Susan Chandler, who chairs the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District delegation, also stood by Steil’s opponents who shouted during the town hall and said “people had a right to express their emotions.”
“I don’t feel he answered a single question that was presented to him,” Chandler said. “He was slick and polished, and it’s time for him to go.”
After the town hall concluded and the audience filed to their vehicles, a homemade “No Kings” sign was left hanging on the entrance to the Elkhorn High School auditorium.
Steil represents one of just two competitive congressional districts in Wisconsin, though he has won previous races comfortably and currently has a large fundraising edge in the early stages of this campaign cycle.
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