After “No Kings” Protests, Democrats Still Searching for a Path Forward

Mil­lions of demon­stra­tors took to the streets across Amer­i­ca this week­end for what orga­niz­ers called the “No Kings” protests — mas­sive ral­lies aimed square­ly at Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and his use of pres­i­den­tial author­i­ty. From New York to Los Ange­les, lib­er­al activists, Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers, and a hand­ful of anti-Trump Repub­li­cans marched in what they described as a “defense of democ­ra­cy.”

But while the media hailed the turnout as a show of uni­ty, the ques­tion now fac­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is sim­ple: what’s next?

The demon­stra­tions were large­ly peace­ful, with music, speech­es, and thou­sands of anti-Trump signs fill­ing city streets. In Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Sen­a­tor Chris Mur­phy (D‑CT) told the crowd that “Amer­i­cans are say­ing loud­ly and proud­ly that we are a free peo­ple, not a peo­ple that can be ruled.”

Yet, just down Penn­syl­va­nia Avenue, the White House seemed unfazed. Deputy Press Sec­re­tary Abi­gail Jack­son dis­missed the event with a two-word response — “Who cares.” Pres­i­dent Trump, nev­er one to miss an oppor­tu­ni­ty for satire, post­ed sev­er­al tongue-in-cheek AI-gen­er­at­ed videos on Truth Social, mock­ing the ral­lies as “lib­er­al the­ater.”

While Democ­rats and the media frame the turnout as proof of a polit­i­cal resur­gence, the num­bers tell a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party’s favor­a­bil­i­ty remains at his­toric lows — bare­ly one-third of Amer­i­cans view it pos­i­tive­ly — and deep divi­sions con­tin­ue to plague its ranks.

Many of those march­ing this week­end weren’t just angry at Trump. They were frus­trat­ed with their own party’s lead­ers, who they say have failed to take a tough enough stance against the pres­i­dent. One pro­test­er in D.C. told NBC News, “We’re just tak­ing it on the chin. The high road doesn’t work any­more.”

A Party Without Power — and Without a Plan

With no con­trol over Con­gress and a shrink­ing share of inde­pen­dent vot­ers, Democ­rats are strug­gling to find a clear strat­e­gy for oppos­ing Trump. The ongo­ing gov­ern­ment shut­down — now enter­ing its fourth week — has become their main lever­age point. Sen­ate Democ­rats have blocked short-term spend­ing exten­sions, insist­ing on health-insur­ance sub­si­dies and social fund­ing that Repub­li­cans have refused to include.

It’s a risky gam­ble. While polls show the pub­lic blames Trump and the GOP for the shut­down, the longer it drags on, the more ordi­nary Amer­i­cans — includ­ing many in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic base — will suf­fer. Thou­sands of fed­er­al work­ers are miss­ing pay­checks. Food-assis­tance pro­grams are dry­ing up. And the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, unfazed, is using the shut­down to push new fed­er­al cuts and reduce gov­ern­ment spend­ing — a move con­ser­v­a­tives have long sup­port­ed.

Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers know they’ll even­tu­al­ly have to strike a deal with the White House. But any com­pro­mise could alien­ate the activist base that filled the streets this week­end. As Sen­a­tor Tim Kaine (D‑VA) admit­ted, “If we shake hands with Pres­i­dent Trump on a deal, we don’t want him then next week fir­ing thou­sands more peo­ple or can­celling pub­lic health funds.”

Testing the “Resistance” at the Ballot Box

This November’s state elec­tions will offer the first real test of whether anti-Trump sen­ti­ment can trans­late into actu­al votes. Democ­rats are hop­ing that the same crowds chant­i­ng “No Kings” will show up at the polls.

In Vir­ginia, for­mer Con­gress­woman Abi­gail Span­berg­er (D) cur­rent­ly leads her Repub­li­can chal­lenger in a governor’s race that could pre­view the polit­i­cal mood head­ing into next year’s midterms. Mean­while, in New Jer­sey — where Trump near­ly halved the GOP’s mar­gin of defeat com­pared to pre­vi­ous cycles — Democ­rats face a sur­pris­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive race.

At a ral­ly in Mont­clair, New Jer­sey, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee Chair Ken Mar­tin urged pro­test­ers to do more than just march: “It’s one thing to show up at protests. It’s anoth­er to move the nee­dle and get back some pow­er.”

The prob­lem, how­ev­er, is that Democ­rats are far from uni­fied about how to get that pow­er back.

Old Fights, New Fault Lines

Even as Democ­rats ral­ly around oppo­si­tion to Trump, the party’s inter­nal frac­tures are show­ing. For­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Harris’s recent book tour has been repeat­ed­ly inter­rupt­ed by pro-Pales­tin­ian activists protest­ing the administration’s Mid­dle East poli­cies. Mean­while, mod­er­ates call­ing for a renewed focus on eco­nom­ic issues over cul­tur­al bat­tles have faced push­back from the party’s pro­gres­sive wing.

Sev­er­al Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­maries — includ­ing in Maine, Cal­i­for­nia, Michi­gan, and Mass­a­chu­setts — are shap­ing up as bit­ter fights between younger, activist can­di­dates and the party’s estab­lish­ment old guard. These divi­sions threat­en to over­shad­ow any uni­fied anti-Trump mes­sage.

For now, the “No Kings” protests gave Democ­rats a tem­po­rary sense of pur­pose — a com­mon cause to ral­ly around. But as the chants fade and the signs come down, the real­i­ty remains: the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is still a move­ment in search of a mes­sage, a leader, and a plan.

As Pres­i­dent Trump’s team con­fi­dent­ly pre­pares for next year’s midterms, Democ­rats are left with one uncom­fort­able truth — march­ing may make head­lines, but it doesn’t win elec­tions.