ASTORIA, Ore. — Around 70 people, most of them women, marched through downtown Astoria on Saturday, joining communities across the country in demonstrating for abortion access and other women’s rights issues ahead of Election Night.
They walked from the Clatsop County Courthouse to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. By the time they reached their destination — the sidewalk along Leif Erikson Drive above the museum — they had received affirming honks from numerous passing cars, a Costco semi-truck, a Walmart semi truck and one U.S. Postal delivery truck.
The animal kingdom had also joined in, or so the marchers claimed. As they passed Gimre’s Shoes on 14th Street, two people walking by paused to cheer and their German shepherd started barking loudly.
“Absolutely, the dog even knows,” said one marcher who told KMUN her name was Julie. She said she joined the march because she is afraid “women are going to go backwards even more than we already have.”
One family visiting from St. Helens happened on the march by chance and joined in, their five-month old baby in a carrier on her dad’s chest. Without meaning to, her mom, a woman named Kirby, had come prepared. She was wearing a pro-Roe v. Wade sweatshirt.
“And underneath it I have my Planned Parenthood shirt on,” she said.
The march was in solidarity with the National Women’s March rally happening on the same day in Washington, D.C. Across the country, numerous communities saw similar marches.
Astoria resident Judith Huck organized the local march. Before they started walking on Saturday, she told the crowd to stay positive and not engage with any counter-protesters they might encounter.
As they marched, the group chanted, “We’re not going back!” — a refrain taken up by supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris throughout her campaign. They hoisted signs that encouraged people to vote for Harris and, in one instance, compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
But Huck told KMUN the materials she distributed to advertise the march did not mention either candidate. She said this was more or less intentional.
“In a way it was,” she said, adding, “I didn’t want it to be confrontational in any way. I wanted it to be uplifting and positive and give people hope because the way it’s been going with the media and the candidates and all of the negativity, it’s just been draining a lot of people. I know for me personally, I’m just exhausted by all the negativity being pounded at as day after day, and I just can’t take it anymore.”
Astoria City Council Andy Davis, who is running against State. Rep Cyrus Javadi in the state House District 32 race, had been invited to attend the march and appeared to be the only elected official present.
He gave some brief remarks at the beginning of the event, but told KMUN he was mostly there as a citizen, “just out here to support people,” he said, and to encourage “people to stay active in the community even after this event and after the election.”
When asked how he was feeling going into Election Night, Davis said, “It is a very open field it feels like, both in the presidential race and in mine. So it’s hard to know what to feel at the moment. I can be optimistic and pessimistic in alternating moments in the day.”