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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Saturday that he is set to headline two major rallies next weekend “as part of a growing national movement challenging oligarchy and economic inequality,” including the flagship “No Kings” rally at the Minnesota State Capitol.
The Vermont Independent plans to join other progressive elected officials, labor leaders, and organizers in Minneapolis on the afternoon of Saturday, March 28, as Americans hold more than 3,000 related No Kings events across the United States.
President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda previously sparked more than 2,100 No Kings demonstrations last June, followed by over 2,700 in October. Organizers announced the third round of protests in January, as the administration flooded the Twin Cities with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who took the lives of two U.S. citizens and violated the rights of many more Minnesotans.
“The next No Kings protest will mark the largest collective exercise of free speech in American history — an undeniable indicator that Americans of all backgrounds support democracy and the Constitution,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, who LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group is part of the coalition behind the protests, said in a statement earlier this week.
“The administration’s attacks on LGBTQ people, especially transgender Americans, spanning from healthcare to military service to accessing accurate IDs, are a threat to freedom for everyone and out of step with what millions of Americans care about,” she declared. “The power of our voices to oppose authoritarianism and recent gross government overreaches can never be overstated. America is for all of us, not some of us.”
The No Kings coalition also includes the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, League of Conservation Voters, National Education Association (NEA), National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union, United We Dream, 50501, and more.
“Across the country, educators and parents are standing up to the extreme overreach of Donald Trump,” said NEA president Becky Pringle. “His administration has attacked our students, undermined public schools, and used tactics like deploying ICE to intimidate and traumatize our communities.”
“In rural, suburban, and urban communities alike, people of all races and backgrounds are coming together to say, ‘Enough!’” Pringle added. “With more than 3,000 events already planned and new volunteers signing up every day, this growing, nonviolent movement will continue to protect our students, our communities, and our democracy from Trump’s authoritarianism and abuses of power.”
After the Minnesota event, Sanders plans to travel to New York, to headline a “Tax the Rich” rally at Lehman College in the Bronx.
During Trump’s first year back in the White House, Sanders led events throughout the nation, including in New York City, as part of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour. More recently, the two-time Democratic presidential primary candidate has visited California to meet with artificial intelligence leaders and to support a billionaire tax opposed by the ultrarich and Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat expected to run for president in 2028.
In the Bronx next Sunday afternoon, Sanders intends to call on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, another rising star in the Democratic Party, to impose higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The rally is scheduled just before the state’s April 1 budget deadline.
“From Trump’s authoritarianism, to the war in Iran, a corrupt campaign system owned by billionaires, attacks on voting rights, and an AI revolution with no guardrails, we are living in dangerous times,” Sanders said in a Saturday statement. “From Minnesota to New York, working people are standing up to demand a government that represents all of us — not just the 1%.”
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