Hundred of people gathered on streets and sidewalks across Oregon’s North Coast and in Southwest Washington to protest the Trump administration Saturday, joining a nationwide turnout that organizers estimate was larger than previous “No Kings” protests.
More than 900 people participated across two protests in Astoria Saturday. A protest in Seaside drew hundreds, according to people who attended. In Manzanita, in northern Tillamook County, an estimated 755 people turned out.
Nationally, people voiced their concerns and anger over the Iran war, immigration enforcement and rising costs of living. These topics were the primary focus for protestors in Astoria, too, along with the Epstein files and support of LGBTQ+ communities.
One protestor in Astoria held a sign that just said, “Where to begin?”
KMUN attended the protest in Astoria and spoke with people in a crowd that stretched for multiple blocks along Marine Drive.
A woman held a sign that read: “All my outrage can’t fit on this sign.”
She was attending the protest with two other friends. One of them, Sara, was originally from Minneapolis where the Trump administration’s most aggressive immigration enforcement tactics were the focus of national attention in recent months and where agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens within weeks of each other in January.
“Just being from there, it’s George Floyd, but it’s also the first time Trump was in office,” Sara said. “We were all out in the cold. It just felt like solidarity.”
In 2020, a white police officer killed George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis. Widespread protests, demonstrations and riots over police brutality followed in that city and were taken up in other cities across the nation with through the Black Lives Matter movement.
Astoria saw its own Black Lives Matter rallies — and counter protests. On Saturday, Sara said it was important for communities in small cities like Astoria to speak up.
“I think it gives people hope that maybe feel alone or aren’t able to speak out or stand up for themselves, that they have support,” she said.
Astoria resident Rachel, an instructor with Portland Community College, attended the city’s No Kings protest with with her husband Rick.
“There’s all kinds of things happening everyday that I believe are completely unacceptable,” Rachel explained.
She has a years-long history of being involved in protest, but for her husband it has been a more recent experience. He said he decided to join in because Astoria is his home.
“And I want my neighbors to know where I stand on these things and I want people driving through town to know where we stand,” he said.