About 160 protesters lined a paved pedestrian path in Ottertail early on Thursday evening. The path led to Thumper Pond Resort, where U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, a Republican representing Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, was a guest speaker at a $10 ticketed event hosted by American Experiment.

American Experiment is a nonprofit organization that lobbies for “free enterprise, limited government, personal responsibility and government accountability,” according to its website.

Of the seven protesters randomly chosen for an interview, all stated they were constituents of Fischbach.

Jenn Johnson, of Detroit Lakes, joined the protest to express her concerns about upholding constitutional rights and attacks on democracy by an oligarchy.

When Johnson was asked what she thought Fischbach should do that she is not doing, she said, “I think Fischbach should be listening to her constituents, and coming out and talking to them.”

Marsha Odom, of Crookston, said she hopes her representative sees that those protesting are not paid.

In recent weeks, protests have been staged outside Fischbach’s offices in Moorhead and Willmar. Fischbach called the Moorhead protests “garbage” and said she thinks the protesters likely live outside of her district and were possibly being paid to protest, according to reporting from The Forum.

Odom said she had visited Fischbach’s Moorhead office in the past, but it was closed. She added that she had tried calling her representative, but was only allowed to talk to her staff.

“We never get to talk with her,” she said. “The message I want to get to her is, come and listen to us.”

Matthew Dean, who served as the majority leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, and worked with Fischbach during that time, was the moderator.

“It’s always awesome to be in a room full of folks wanting to hear about what’s going on in Washington, D.C.,” Fischbach said in her opening remarks. “So thank you for being here.”

On policy, Fischbach said President Donald Trump’s tax policy that was implemented in his first term is set to expire at the end of the year, and that it “had a great impact on the state.”

Awoman in the crowd stood up and asked what she was doing to help farmers who lost subsidies.

Fischbach replied to the woman, “Ma’am, I’m talking right now, and everybody was listening.”

When the woman persisted, Fischbach said she would continue when the woman sat down and reminded her that other people were there to listen.

The woman noted Fischbach was her representative, and she, too, would like to listen about how she plans to help farmers.

Event staff approached the woman and asked her to leave. The woman complied, one of several asked to leave under similar circumstances.

Dean later brought the discussion to the Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Dean suggested DOGE had already found “hundreds of billions of dollars” in savings, which brought forth a lot of laughter from attendees.

“I don’t find anything funny about finding hundreds of billions of dollars in savings,” Dean said.

A woman yelled, “Prove it.”

The moderator brought the conversation back to the need to reduce the federal deficit, which is stated to be a goal of DOGE. Several people suggested taxing the rich.

Fischbach also touched on cuts to Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that works with the Children’s Health Insurance Program to provide health coverage to more than 77.9 million U.S. citizens.

Fischbach explained a directive to make cuts to the program, reducing staffing requirements at nursing homes and telehealth to help reduce the Medicaid budget.

A man in the audience asked for more information on how that would translate to savings, and he was asked not to interrupt.

“Why not?” he replied. “We want to get more specific about this. You can’t just say you’re going to cut telehealth and (requirements for nursing home) staffing and save $880 billion. It’s a lie! It’s a lie.”

No further explanation was given by Fischbach.

However, she did touch on the Department of Education being dismantled. Fischbach said Trump did not cut education, but rather the department, and some of the crowd laughed. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the department. Only Congress has the authority to completely shutter the Department of Education.

The congresswoman went on to say she doesn’t believe federal funding to education would be cut.