Hundreds of demonstrators gathered across Southern California on Saturday as part of the nationwide “No Kings” protests aimed at encouraging early voter turnout ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Events took place in downtown Los Angeles, as well as in Orange and Riverside counties, with participants expressing frustration over the current U.S. government and calling for increased civic engagement.
In Los Angeles, several hundred people assembled by midday at Gloria Molina Grand Park, carrying signs critical of former President Donald Trump and related political issues. Marches and rallies commenced after speeches around 1 p.m., with attendees preparing for a planned march through the downtown area. Messages on signs ranged from calls against Trump’s leadership to warnings about the consequences of voter apathy. Booths promoting election reforms, including ranked-choice voting, were also present.
State Senator Sasha Renee Perez (D-Pasadena) addressed the crowd, highlighting concerns about immigration enforcement actions she characterized as voter intimidation. Perez noted that these actions coincided with tight congressional races, especially in California’s Central Valley. "If your vote was not so powerful, we would not see this administration spending millions of dollars on Operation Safe California to terrorize our community," she said, emphasizing grassroots organization as a path to victory.
Longtime Los Angeles resident Marlene McRae said she participated to voice her dissatisfaction with the current administration and stressed the importance of voting as a means of expressing dissent.
Saturday’s rallies marked the fourth national wave of “No Kings” demonstrations over approximately one year, each with distinct focal points such as opposing Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies, international conflicts like the war in Iran, rising gas prices, and increases in food costs.
The protests come amid ongoing controversy surrounding claims of widespread voter fraud promoted by Trump, who has alleged—without substantiated evidence—that noncitizens are voting illegally. Election officials and experts have repeatedly discredited these assertions, finding no significant evidence to support them.
Just days before the midterms, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California, seeking to prevent ballots from about 20,000 voters—primarily in Los Angeles County—whom they allege are noncitizens, from being counted. California election officials pushed back against the suit, while the Department of Justice warned of potential criminal consequences for election workers who count disputed ballots.
The movement also stretched into more conservative areas. In Temecula, about 85 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, roughly 500 protesters gathered despite the city’s Republican-leaning electorate. Riverside County resident John O’Connor, 70, who compared Saturday’s rallies to Vietnam War protests he attended in his youth, noted a decline in visible Trump support in the region. Another participant, Susan Collins, a naturalized U.S. citizen who emigrated from Australia, criticized Trump’s immigration policies and international aid cuts, calling the impacts “incredible.”
Not all reactions were supportive. At the Temecula protest site, a driver repeatedly circled and harassed demonstrators with honking and offensive gestures before being escorted away by a sheriff’s deputy.
Earlier in the day, a smaller group of about 50 protesters marched along the boardwalk connecting Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach in the South Bay area, ending with a group chant urging voter participation.
On the digital front, the “No Kings” coalition reported the unexpected deactivation of its primary Instagram accounts on Saturday, hindering online mobilization during the national day of action. A spokesperson for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, acknowledged the accounts were disabled due to automated systems triggered by high-frequency posting, stating the action was taken in error and occurred during the critical period of mobilization.
California voters have already begun casting mail-in ballots for the midterms, underscoring the urgency expressed by the protesters to engage the electorate ahead of the November election.