'The Democratic Party is Irrelevant Here': Ahlman Stresses Populist Streak in First Town Hall

by Lewis Thune

(Photo credit Lewis Thune)

NORFOLK — Just two weeks after incumbent Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska’s First District kicked off his 2026 town hall schedule in Norfolk, Independent challenger Austin Ahlman did likewise on Thursday night. In an event that welcomed NE-01 voters to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Winter-Munson Post 1644 in Norfolk, Ahlman spent just over an hour delivering introductory remarks and fielding audience questions.

“I’m running as an independent because of how broken I think our politics are,” he said in his opening remarks. “In this country right now, the vast majority of working people have far more in common with each other than with the politicians who represent us.”

In clear anticipation of impending questions about his decision to run as an independent against the GOP incumbent and democratic challenger Chris Backemeyer, Ahlman looked to Nebraska history to justify his choice.

“Nebraskans are the ones, first and foremost, who broke the Gilded Age. The way that we did it was that we elected a slew of Independents to the House, to the Senate, to our Governor’s Mansion, and it scared the living hell out of both of the political parties,” he said, “They scrambled in the years that followed to start addressing working people’s needs again, because they learned that they’re vulnerable. They learned that they can be beat.”

When asked a very early question on his answer to those accusing him of “playing spoiler” against a potentially competitive Backemeyer campaign, he was quick to defend the viability of his candidacy.

“They should look at the data. Dan Osborn won this district in 2024 – narrowly, but he won it. The Democrat on the ballot lost it by 20 points,” he said. “I think we all know the Democratic Party is irrelevant here. If you want something to be different, you have to go broader.”

When asked again why he would risk splitting votes with Backemeyer against the GOP incumbent, he indicated his platform had a strong appeal with Republican-leaning voters as well as Democrats.

“Most Republicans that I know are scared about the endless foreign wars,” he said, “Scared of what Silicon Valley is doing with AI.”

He went on to state he fell to the conservative side on issues like the right to bear arms and questions of religious liberty.

“I’m not a culture warrior,” he said, “I don’t know any person — no matter how far right or how far left they are — that doesn’t have some position that’s in the middle or even from the far other side on a few issues. And right now, there’s no representation for that.”

Ahlman Touts Populist Policies

Having addressed the question of party, Ahlman used the rest of the evening to hammer the three central planks of his campaign: fighting monopolies, ending AI encroachment on Nebraska communities, and withdrawing the United States from foreign wars. He touted his record in such fights as a former journalist for the Open Markets Institute.

“I made my career helping defend real free markets, not ones that are monopolized, not ones that are socialized, ones that are free,” he said, “that was my beat when I was there, taking on corporations like Google that are manipulating, dividing us.”

First on his mind in the fight against corporate monopolies is the influence they seem to hold on Capitol Hill. “My first priority is campaign finance reform, and generally speaking, political reform,” he said.

He credited these priorities as the basis for his support of congressional term limits, congressional stock trading bans, and limitations on post-congressional lobbying by retired representatives. He pointed to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and current Speaker Mike Johnson for failing on this front.

“You have people in Congress, they’re not even there to serve. They are there to signal to all the right big donors that they are on their side, so that when they do stop serving in Congress, they can go collect the biggest paycheck that you can imagine: lobbying their former colleagues,” he said.

In line with his concerns about monied influence, he reiterated his commitment to not accept campaign donations from corporate PACs or lobbyists, a point of difference he was keen to draw between himself and his competitors.

“Mike Flood? Over half the money in his campaign bank account is from corporate PACs. The other person in the race, the Democratic nominee? [He] has pocketed thousands and thousands of dollars from the lobbyists that lobbied the State Department for the endless wars.”

Subsequent questions ranged from labor unions to taxes to the new “kill switch” laws that would require all new cars to include driver-monitoring technology.

Ahlman voiced his positive experience within unions while warning of increasing corruption, proposed an income tax suspension for a household’s first $38,000 per fiscal year, and called for a nationwide data privacy bill.

“I would fight like hell to pass those things, to give regular people their rights back, and to make sure that they are protected from both the government and the monopolies,” he said.

Ahlman’s heterodoxy continually showed as he, in consecutive answers, championed strict border security and farm bills alongside Medicare expansion and a War Powers Resolution in Iran.

“Congress needs to reclaim its responsibility over our military. The presidency has way too much power, and it creates a horrible incentive structure,” he said.

In closing, he expressed his hopes to visit every county in NE-01 before November. His final pitch to attendees in Norfolk again recalled Nebraska history.

“Like the unicameral public power system, nonpartisan elections for the state senate – all of that exists because we are so independent-minded, more so than I think any other state in this country,” he said, “We once saved this entire country from itself, and we absolutely can do it again.”

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.