The fourth round of “No Kings” rallies unfolded across the country on Saturday, barely two weeks ahead of the midterm elections, though they did not draw many of the Democrats running in the country’s most closely watched races.
The demonstrations, which were more subdued and in many cases smaller than past “No Kings” gatherings, were singularly focused on the election, as organizers hope to push Americans to the polls. At the same time, they were intended to be nonpartisan, organizers said.
Here are four takeaways.
The Focus Was on Getting People to Vote
The last “No Kings” day, in March, centered in large part on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and on the war in Iran, which had started a month earlier.
This time, the centerpiece of the gatherings was a sprawling voter mobilization push. And unlike during the demonstrations in March, there was no massive flagship rally in Minnesota headlined by Bruce Springsteen.
Instead, organizers said there were more than 3,000 events across the country, in what they called the largest single-day voter activation in American history.
“This was intentionally structured as hyperlocal events,” said Leah Greenberg, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive group that helps organize “No Kings” events. “Voting takes place in neighborhoods, and so we were really leaning into asking folks to engage with their own community.”
The gatherings took many forms, including rallies, block parties and small concerts.
“It was just very different,” said Brad Hoylman-Signal, a Democrat and the Manhattan borough president, who spoke at a “No Kings” event in Lower Manhattan. He added, though, that he thought anti-Trump fervor remained strong and focused, describing Saturday’s round of gatherings a “call to action.”
The two anchor events were held in Atlanta and Dallas. Georgia and Texas are both states with closely watched Senate races, but the Democratic Senate nominees in those states did not attend the events, according to “No Kings” organizers.
Many Prominent Democrats Skipped the Events
Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, were not the only Democrats in marquee races who opted not to attend “No Kings” events.
Other Democratic Senate nominees who were absent included the Rev. Adam Hamilton, the party’s candidate in Kansas; former Senator Sherrod Brown, the candidate in Ohio; former Gov. Roy Cooper, the candidate in North Carolina; and Josh Turek, the candidate in Iowa, according to their representatives.
Candidates for office were not invited to speak at the gatherings, Ms. Greenberg said.
With some of the key races that could decide control of the Senate playing out in states that President Trump won comfortably in 2024, candidates who are trying to center their campaigns on economic issues may have seen little upside to attending events that cast the president as authoritarian.
Still, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the progressive Democratic Senate nominee in Minnesota’s unexpectedly close Senate race, attended a “No Kings” event in Moorhead, near the North Dakota border.
Republicans Panned the Gatherings
The White House, which has mocked past “No Kings” gatherings, responded to the events on Saturday by urging Republicans to turn out to vote. A White House spokeswoman said that the focus on voting had undercut the name of the rallies.
“The fact that the ‘No Kings’ organizers are talking about voting in the upcoming election proves they should change their name,” the spokeswoman, Lauren Bis, said in a statement.
Compared with past gatherings, when Mr. Trump and party leaders were vocal critics of the rallies, Republicans were more muted, reflecting the lower-profile nature of the events.
Still, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, Natalie Baldassarre, said that the demonstrators were shouting “into the void,” and that “No Kings Day happened on July 4, 1776.”
Protesters Expressed Anxiety About the Election
The message from the White House was unlikely to comfort some who attended the gatherings and said they were anxious about the elections, which follow a monthslong effort by Mr. Trump to sow doubts about the integrity of America’s election system.
Some attendees said they were uncertain whether voting by mail would be secure, given Mr. Trump’s yearslong promotion of baseless claims that mail voting is rife with fraud. (Mr. Trump has, nonetheless, recently encouraged his supporters to vote by mail.)
Jim Pojman, 75, of Berea, Ohio, said that he typically voted by mail, but that he did not want to take a chance on the U.S. Postal Service this year. He planned to drop off his ballot off at the election board.
Two days before this round of “No Kings” events, the Trump administration sued California, seeking to temporarily block the state from counting mail ballots submitted by voters it suspected were not citizens.
Voting by mail has been the most popular option for voting in California in recent elections.
Patrick Cooley in Cleveland and Ann Kleinin Iowa contributed reporting.
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