Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Stumps for Braun at Trap Door Brewing
Yesterday afternoon, my phone lit up from non-beer friends. They were all asking if I knew Trap Door Brewing in Vancouver, WA (for those of you outside the region, Vancouver and Portland snuggle up on opposite sides of the Columbia River). They had seen reports that US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had done a stop there with a candidate for the house, John Braun. Here’s a story this morning from The Chronicle in Centralia, WA:
Less than 48 hours after the polls closed on Washington state’s primary, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives was in Vancouver, giving his endorsement to John Braun for Congress. Braun thanked the owner of Trap Door Brewing, Bryan Shull, for hosting the event.
So, look. In normal times, we’d accept the idea that supporting politics and elections and giving candidates a space for events was not controversial. These are not normal times.
Although the regular press didn’t make much of it, the news spread like wildfire on social media. The posts on Reddit are savage. Both the r/vancouverwa and r/Portland were alive with f-bombs and acid takes:
“Won't ever set foot in this place again.” (143 likes)
“Hey trapdoor. If you don't tell me why you hosted this - I will never visit you again or buy anything from you. Fuck you.”
“Fuck you, Trapdoor. Now i can tell people to stay away.” (169 likes)
It goes on and on like that. In neither thread did I see a single comment supporting the brewery. Southwest Washington is a lot less blue than Portland, but it’s still solidly Democratic (in 2024, they voted 52-45% for Harris). In 2026, hosting any political event itself becomes a political event—perhaps you recall the Xicha dust-up this spring—and hosting one as high-profile as this, with the Speaker of the House, counts as an intentionally political act. That owner Bryan Shull did it in a district where 55% of the people didn’t vote for his party is a risky move.
But then, Shull isn’t a random beer guy. He’s currently running for the county council and introduced Johnson. Those seats are nonpartisan, but Shull is running on the right—and if anyone was confused, this was a coming out party of sorts. Here’s more from The Chronicle:
“Small business, manufacturing, retail, this is the core of our economy,” Braun said. “This is what makes our lives go, here in Vancouver and around Southwest Washington. Folks like Bryan, and many others like him, are what make Southwest Washington a great place to live, a great place to raise your family. We’ve got to fight back if we are going to keep it prosperous.”
It’s also worth noting that Trap Door is not some rando brewery. They are a darling of the increasingly robust Vancouver corps of breweries, and have won tons of medals, including back-to-back golds in the fresh hop IPA category at GABF. Whether this will, ahem, take the shine off the brewery long term is something we’ll have to wait and see.
Many of you know my politics, which I haven’t hidden. Nevertheless, I’m a little uncomfortable with the idea that the mere act of hosting a political event becomes such a polarizing act for a brewery. They have become community meeting places, which is fantastic, honestly. Hosting political events is a democratic act, and I am loath to punish a brewery for it. But in this case, the owner is a political actor, and he’s using his brewery to advance a political agenda. In that case, it’s hard to blame people for reacting with their own robust political opinions.
Okay, now back to my sort-of vacation. Please keep it civil in comments, too, folks. I am fine with a political discussion, but let’s keep personal attacks out of it. (And I’m interested to hear your reactions, too.)