Everyday Election Activism

An Insider's Guide (#18) - June 26, 2025

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‘No Kings Day’ - 12 Days Later

News dashes past us. Just twelve days ago we were fresh off the excitement of ‘No Kings Day.’ The largest protest day in American history! Congratulations to us!

Over five million people came together peacefully. We stole the show from the Not Our President. ‘No Kings Day’ made idealism great again!

What a needed respite from difficult news cycles! We so needed that dose of encouragement. We so needed the visuals of community after community taking to the streets, in blue, purple and red areas: the birds-eye photos of crowds and the close-ups of handmade signs and smiling people.

By now we are on to the next crises - an unlawful and uncertain Middle East war, further capitulation of Congress and the Supreme Court - added to the ongoing crises of deportation, the ugly budget bill, the MAGAfication of federal funding, etcetera, etcetera.

We got another boost this week though, with the results of the New York City Democratic Primary! Out with the old guard, in with a new generation. New Yorkers voted for a Muslim, Millennial, and Democratic Socialist who excites them with a vision for doing things differently. We don’t know how effective he will be if he becomes Mayor, but I’m hoping it’s the beginning of a new normal for the Democratic Party. The impact has already rippled out. In just two days, since Mamdani’s victory, over 1,100 young people have reached out to Run For Something with an interest in running for office. Wow!

And so we lurch forward, our wins a counterweight to our grief and grievances. There is no stopping us now. It helps to keep reminding ourselves that ultimately the power lies with us - as voters and activists!

Speaking of power - five million people filled the streets on June 14. Why only five million? We all know (and polling reassures us) that many more agree with us.

Reaching them is part of our work. Our next big goalpost is the July 17 National Day of Action, Good Trouble Lives On! How do we grow our numbers? Well, how did we get to five million people on June 14? That’s five million more than were on the streets last November!

‘No Kings Day’ - How We Did It

Why did so many more Americans decide to turn out this time? Was it just because more people are paying attention? Was it because people seized on the opportunity to express their pent up anger? Were people so fed up that they felt compelled to pour out into the streets?

Not so fast!

Popular protests do not happen spontaneously. Large protest movements tap into widespread discontent, but political action is not a habit for most Americans. Wide-scale protests only happen when the foundations is in place. Millions of people do not magically appear on a National Day of Action!

The National Ecosystem of Activism

The ‘No Kings Day’ website lists 200 partner organizations. That’s a big number! It includes organizations you may have heard of, like MoveOn, Indivisible, Black Voters Matter, ACLU, 350.org, Kairos Center, Bernie, SURJ, Third Act, SEIU, Working Families Party, Common Cause. The list also includes many that most of us are not familiar with. Some have been around for decades or longer, but some are recent additions. The first Trump administration and the January 6 insurrection spurred a lot of new activism.

The size and breadth of the coalition shows us that the ecosystem for taking action was in place. We were ready for this moment!

The national coalition helped get out the word out about ‘No Kings Day’ on social media and through emails sent to each organization’s followers. It helped build energy with mass zoom calls and content posted to websites. The ‘No Kings’ website tracked the proliferation of events - over 2,000 of them - and allowed people to find information about events near them. It provided messaging suggestions and toolkits for setting up an event and keeping protesters safe. A good trickle-down strategy of expertise and helpful information!

In the End, It’s All Local

National groups lay the groundwork, gave voice to the vision and the goals, and gave us reason to be involved, but nothing would have happened without local activism.

The resistance always relies on a local ecosystem, the web of organizations and volunteer leaders who strategize, organize, and grow our ranks where we live. That web is invisible to most, like the roots that support a tree, or like the underground networks of fungi that support the life of the whole forest.

Local organizations know their followers and are best positioned to take action, whether they be chapters of national groups, such as labor organizations, or nonprofits rooted in their communities, or homegrown all-volunteer groups such as local Indivisible, Swing Left, or Red Wine and Blue groups.

Indivisible likely has the largest reach for bringing in volunteers. Its website lists groups in all fifty states, currently a total of 2,274. Over 200 new groups sprung up between last November’s election and mid-January alone. Even Wyoming, where Trump won in 2024 by the largest margin in the country (46 percentage points) has four Indivisible groups. The national level Indivisible encourages the formation of local groups, but each group makes its own decisions and carries out its own actions.

For ‘No Kings Day’ here in Durham I received most of my information from my local Indivisible groups and the county Democratic Party. I was not personally privy to most of the planning: the schedule, permits, speakers, music, sound equipment, security, outreach, and sign-making. A core group of a half dozen volunteers across several local organizations - it doesn’t take many! - deserve our boundless gratitude for putting on the event. About 6,000 people showed up, approximately 2% of Durham’s population. Durham made us proud!

It’s Not Only Local, It’s Personal! Everyone was Invited in by Somebody. And You Can Be That Somebody!

Even with national and local infrastructure in place, the protest would not have drawn as many people as it did without the final ingredient - people being invited in.

Everyone who showed up on June 14 was there because someone invited them! Perhaps they heard about the event through a trusted social media source or through a pre-existing affiliation with a local organization, but these connections are unlikely to account for the turnout. Only already engaged individuals actively seek out information about the resistance. For the rest, showing up is personal. It’s happens through word of mouth.

We would not be able to grow the resistance without word of mouth - people reaching out to those in their networks, and encouraging them to give voice to their opposition. People letting others know that they plan to attend, sharing the mobilize link for signing up, or offering to carpool. People bringing in people who are not yet engaged, starting by asking if they have considered joining a protest, or inquiring how they feel about what is going in the country. It’s the simple human-to-human interactions that help build a movement. I hear stories every week about people initiating political conversations with strangers they interact with during the course of their day.

And that is the secret of making protests bigger, of growing the movement to take back our country. Beyond the foundation provided by our ecosystems of organizations, we need enough already-engaged people to invite others in. It’s local and it’s personal! Your words of encouragement to others and your actions are contagious.

What Now? Looking Ahead to ‘Good Trouble Lives On!’ and Beyond

We are building momentum for the next National Day of Action on July 17, ‘Good Trouble Lives On!’ On the fifth anniversary of John Lewis’ death, we will honor him by showing what good trouble looks like in 2025. I’m confident we can break our previous record for protest size on July 17, if we help out our local coalitions and keep inviting people in!

Beyond National Days of Action - Everyday Activism

Activism is not built into the routines of most people’s lives. Many people do not even vote. Fewer still know the names of the officials elected to represent them. An even smaller number think of themselves as activists.

Yet national outrage is guaranteed to continue building as the damage inflicted by the current administration unfolds. There is plenty of energy out there for us to harness. Plenty of potential activists!

Here is how I see our next steps, between now and July 17 and beyond.

• Let us continue our protests, even the small ones that happen on street corners and highway overpasses. In Durham you can join a protest almost any day of the week. Small protests keep people engaged and help newer folks develop the habit of activism. They also let people not yet a part of the resistance know that we are here, increasing the chances they will join us next time!

• Think beyond protests to the other ways to push back on MAGA and hold our government accountable. Continue directly pressuring our elected officials with phone calls and town halls. If we can engage some of the new protesters in this effort, that would be a boon for our movement!

• Keep amplifying your voice by reaching out to people you don’t know, in your own community, across your state, and in other states. Canvassing, phone banking, text banking, and writing letters and postcards all help bring people into the resistance and fire them up to vote down the MAGA Republicans. Check out some of the Opportunities (I keep it up to date), both in NC and nationally. My list is incomplete, however, so seek out resources wherever you live. Join the ecosystem of resistance!

In a word, let’s stay engaged, keep folks new to activism involved, and get creative in growing the numbers of everyday activists!