Ginny Lim, a lifelong Democrat, knew she’d be angry at Republican Rep. Rich McCormick’s recent town hall in Roswell, Georgia, so she practiced her question for her congressman the night before.
“Tyranny is rising in the White House, and a man has declared himself our king,” Lim said at a Feb. 20 meeting, a clip of which was later shared on TikTok. “So I would like to know — rather, the people would like to know — what you, Congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House?”
The crowd erupted in applause and cheers, some giving Lim a standing ovation. And the sound of her voice — crisp, with controlled fury — struck a chord online, with the footage racking up more than 3 million views and more than 300 people on TikTok using the audio in their own videos.
Some people were gleeful at the combination of Lim’s thick Georgian accent and strong liberal views, and others were happy to hear someone so directly calling out a Republican lawmaker. In addition to going viral online, the clip has made Lim a minor celebrity in Georgia liberal groups. At an Indivisible rally on Monday, Lim said about 30 people recognized her from the video and thanked her for speaking up.
Lim is a 50-year-old mother and business owner. She told HuffPost that McCormick’s town hall was only the second one she had ever been to. It was just one of many GOP town halls across the nation that have gone viral because of angry constituents.
On Tuesday, the chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm told Republican lawmakers to stop holding town halls. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the people speaking out at the events are paid; however, Lim says she was never paid.
Lim said she originally wanted to ask McCormick about the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections and could disenfranchise millions of Americans, according toits critics.
The idea that so many Americans could lose their right to vote leaves Lim, a proud descendant of founding father Patrick Henry, emotional, and she said she feared she would end up sounding a “little crazy and unhinged” speaking about it publicly.
Instead, she asked McCormick about President Donald Trump’s overreach. Since taking office in January, Trump has signed 76 executive orders, frozen foreign aid funding, challenged birthright citizenship, and, with billionaire Elon Musk, made an unprecedented grab for Congress’ power of the purse.
After Lim asked her question, McCormick said that he wouldn’t give his “Foghorn Leghorn response” to her, a reference to the Looney Tunes rooster with a strong Southern accent. Lim told HuffPost that if McCormick has a problem with her accent, he has a problem with about 90% of his constituents.
McCormick continued after his jab, saying that people also accused former President Joe Biden of tyranny. The crowd erupted in boos as McCormick compared them to the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021.
He eventually said he believes executive power is too strong and that state governments should be stronger than the federal government.
“He never gave a straight answer,” Lim told HuffPost. “That’s why people were getting so mad … And he just laughed it off, and he obfuscated, and he changed the subject, and he blamed other people.”
McCormick did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Lim told HuffPost that going viral on TikTok is “flattering” and “humbling.” She said she’s been compared to Julia Sugarbaker, the outspoken lead character of the 1980s sitcom “Designing Women,” but said she was really channeling her Great Aunt Julia, whom she called an “amazing Southern lady.”
Others agreed that Lim embodied strong Southern women. Theresa Burns, a 36-year-old living in New York, made a TikTok using Lim’s voice that has more than 100,000 views. In text overlaying the video, she wrote, “I dunno about yall, but when my southern aunts start talking like this… you better run for your LIFE you are in trouble.”
Burns told HuffPost that Lim’s speech resonated with her because Lim “didn’t stutter” and “said exactly what she meant to say.” Comments on Burns’ TikTok are filled with people applauding her enunciation and playfully joking that Lim is “big mad.”
“She almost said it like she was leading the Sunday sermon,” Burns said.
Since going viral, Lim has started her own TikTok account, and in her second video, she urges people to call their lawmakers and ask, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
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“Ladies and gentlemen, you may have sold your souls, but the rest of America has not,” she said in her TikTok. “We will not accept it.”