BURSTVideo surfaced over the weekend of Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) being heckled at a townhall event in Houston, which the Texas Republican said was evidence of "leftists" disrupting his event and annoying his constituents.
The protesters criticized Crenshaw for voting for last summer's "big, beautiful bill" because of its cuts to Medicaid, and called on the lawmaker to instead focus on the release of files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Throughout Crenshaw’s remarks, demonstrators held up red signs when he shared statements they disagreed with.
“Of the 400 people in the room, about fifty leftists would not stop interrupting with shouting and incoherent chanting,” Crenshaw wrote in a Friday post on X, reflecting on the event.
“They demanded that we raise everyone's taxes, give free paychecks to able-bodied adults, and sneered at the success of the flood mitigation projects we’ve done that have saved lives and property,” he added.
The Texas representative said he was disrupted as he attempted to provide flood mitigation updates to residents and accused noisy attendees of being Democrats from outside of his district.
"First clue that most of these protesters probably weren't actual constituents: they tried to shout me down when I gave an update on funding for FLOOD MITIGATION, which is priority #1 in Kingwood," he wrote on X.
Kingwood is a community in Houston where Crenshaw was holding his event.
"They’d know how important these projects are if they actually lived in Kingwood during Hurricane Harvey. Anyways, the protestors did a great job of annoying all the actual constituents in the room and made it really easy to identify themselves with their red cards (you’ll see what I mean in the video. It was kind of hilarious actually)," Crenshaw wrote. "If the left keeps this up 2026 is going to be a really good year for Republicans."
Republicans have come under fire at a number of town halls across the country all year.
Video shows some in the audience at Crenshaw's event shouting “release the files” and telling Crenshaw to “answer our questions” about Epstein’s dealings involving the president.
“We don’t want to hear your propaganda,” some told Crenshaw as he spoke about measures impacting the district.
Dozens in the group of demonstrators also objected to Crenshaw’s statements about the spending package overwhelmingly approved by Republicans over the summer.
Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4, enacting harsher work requirements and limiting the amount of federal reimbursements hospitals can receive for performing services required by law.
During the town hall,Crenshaw lauded the bill as a measure to kick the “lazy” off of welfare in an effort to save the taxpayers $1 trillion.
“You have to be an adult with no disabilities, no other issues, and no dependents under 15. You have to refuse to volunteer or look for a job or even take a part-time job. Basically, you have to be pretty dang lazy. That's who we kicked off,” Crenshaw said of new requirements, which were in part ushered in through legislation he introduced earlier this year.
“You can be mad about it, you can be mad about it, but I'll tell you what, 80 percent of Americans agree with this idea that there should be work requirements for welfare. This is going to be a very fun hour, I appreciate the enthusiasm,” he continued.
Despite criticism, GOP strategists have urged Republican lawmakers to host townhalls for the purpose of outlining the benefits of the big, beautiful bill ahead of midterm elections. Some have shied away from events citing a poor response from attendees often captured in the media and online.