by Amanda Baker19th, this story was originally published 19th
This is the story Originally reported by Amanda Baker 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of her reports on gender, politics and policy.
Kendra Sullivan was at her family’s cabin in the Allegheny Highlands region in late October “just planning a low-key country weekend.” But the cabin has internet, so messages about him keep coming One Woman No Kings protest The previous weekend in Beckley, West Virginia.
“That weekend was crazy,” she said. “My dad, that morning, was like: ‘You’re on the news!’ Although we were very isolated, we were bombarded: ‘Kendra is now famous!’
His aunt in Anchorage even texted Sullivan to let him know that news of his protest had reached Alaska.
After a whirlwind three months, Sullivan filed papers in January for a seat on the Democratic Party’s executive committee in West Virginia and Harrison County, where he lives.
Sullivan was one of nearly 7 million people who took part in about 2,700 No Kings protests on October 18, 2025. Independent estimates confirmed that it was the largest one-day protest in American history. No Kings organizers expect to break that record Saturday, when more than 3,000 events are planned across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including a major event in Minneapolis.
The No Kings movement is disproportionately organized by youth and women. The October protests were the second national movement One in JuneWhile the main event in Philadelphia was one of 2,100 that drew more than 5 million to oppose President Donald Trump on his birthday. Since the days of No Kings began, Observers raised questions Whether to organize people in protest on the road may be Lasting, social change.
Early anecdotal evidence suggests that participation in No Kings events is motivating women organizers to think more about what they can do to support democracy in their countries. Some, like Sullivan, have decided to run for office: He’ll be on West Virginia’s May 12 primary ballot. It’s similar, but wider and more geographically dispersed, to the influx of women running for office after the first Women’s March in early 2017.
“I’ve always been politically engaged to some degree, but I’ve never thought about running for elected office before,” Sullivan said.
After 19 Her story is a woman’s protestSullivan received a call from the team’s leaders. She spoke at a Democratic Women’s meeting; Then a chapter of the Drinking Liberally group, part of the Living Liberally umbrella organization. Trump won about 70 percent of the vote in 2024, and he surveyed the political landscape to decide where he could make the biggest difference in a state where Republicans held supermajorities in the state House and Senate. He settled in the party committee.
“Playing a role would be a way to restore the Democratic Party and make sure there’s a focus on families, working families and women, because right now we have only two women (among) Democrats in the Legislature,” explained Sullivan, an educator and mother of a 7-year-old son.
Amanda Littman, co-founder and president of Run for Something, a group that recruits and supports young progressive candidates running for state and local office, said that compared to Trump’s first term, there has been a significant increase in the number of people interested in running for office.
“Last year we had 80,000 sign up to run for office — more than Trump’s entire first term. Then we had another 5,000 in the first 10 weeks of this year,” Littman said.
While the largest number of candidates are in the most populous states, Littman said “there are a lot more rural people than we expected” and that this reflects a set of priorities among Democratic candidates that has changed since Trump’s first term.
“The thing we heard was different: ‘I’m sick and tired of the Democratic Party. I’m sick and tired of being asked to wait my turn,'” Littman said. “We’re also hearing a lot of: ‘Democrats haven’t been where I’ve been, they don’t know what it’s like to be in my shoes.'”
“Trump is the water they’re swimming in but he’s not the bait,” he added.
Run for Something is not affiliated with No Kings, but some of the organization’s endorsed candidates this year come from the movement. There are two Katrina Manetta in Michigan’s politically volatile Macomb County And Leila Staton in north central IowaBoth of whom founded chapters of Indivisible, a national progressive movement started in 2016 by former congressional staffers to organize peaceful opposition to Trump’s presidency. Since Indivisible is a national partner in the Leaderless No Kings movement, Manetta and Staton went on to organize No Kings events in their communities. Both are now vying for seats in their respective state houses.
Manetta, a 31-year-old server who was born and raised in the district he is running for, said on the 19th that he was “devastated” after the 2024 presidential election. She remembers Googling “what’s on now” and finding an Indivisible meeting in a nearby community. He went, then co-founded a chapter in his own neighborhood. Their first meeting in a coffee shop drew five people — an undivided number suggesting an organizer initially aimed to marshal. The second, in the basement of the house Manetta shares with his mother, draws 10.
“Now, we consistently have more than 100 people come to our meetings every month. It shows that we understand what people are looking for: they want movement, they want action, they want a fight — and they don’t see that Democrats are currently fighting,” Manetta said.
Manetta abandoned plans to apply to law school and decided to run for office. he Read Litman’s book. He is appointed by Great Lakes Leadership Academy, Which has trained progressive candidates since 2013. He will likely face off in Michigan’s August primary and first-term GOP incumbent Republican Ron Robinson in November, who flipped the district in 2024 with 53 percent of the vote.
“Because of the work we’ve been doing, I know what it takes to win in this area, to make sure Democrats show up to the polls to vote. I felt like I’d have the best chance to flip the seat this year,” he said.
Staton, Iowa, has traversed a similar trajectory. The 22-year-old, with a background in advocacy for victims of childhood sexual abuse, said she and her family were “really upset” about the loss of then-Vice President Kamala Harris to Trump after the 2024 election. They reached out to their local and state Democratic Party organizations to see how they could help — perhaps door-knocking, or canvassing — but got no response. Next, they were looking at “what we can do to create a community that’s like-minded and that just wants better,” Staton said.
Staton’s family came across inseparable. They set out to find five people and form a small group “like we can talk about all the bad things that are happening.” Within months, Insufferable Wench’s of Iowa, founded by Staton and her mother, swelled to 450 people. They often meet online so Iowans anywhere in the state can participate and run mutual aid programs to benefit their local communities. Cheeky Midwestern T-shirt Purvoir Raygun A “Iowa needs insufferable wench“shirts that raise money for their efforts. While researching state law, Stayton realized that her two-term Republican state representative, Joshua Meggers, ran unopposed.
“Often, you’re the person you’re looking for,” Staton said. “I decided I was going to do it last May and have been knocking on doors every weekend since.”
Staton is running unopposed in the Democratic primary — but he knows that come November, prevailing in counties where Trump won by 35 to 40 points in 2024 will be tough for a Democratic newcomer just two years later. When he first decided to try, he “didn’t think there would be any chance of success,” he said.
“But after getting more involved in my community and listening to people and what they’re worried about, I’ve come to the conclusion that everybody’s worried about the same things, it doesn’t matter if you have a Republican or a Democrat after your name,” he said.
“I don’t really concern myself with how the Republicans won the district; I think it’s time for people to look for something different, because it’s not working,” Staton added.
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