Overview: Mobilizing civic power
National columnist and NNPA Chairman Dr. John E. Warren reflects on the nationwide "No Kings Day" demonstrations and makes a compelling case for turning grassroots energy into electoral power.
Over the past two years, millions of Americans from every walk of life have turned out for “No Kings Day” protest marches across this nation. The demonstrations have targeted the illegal practices and activities of President Trump, in violation of the Constitution and everything democracy stands for. We have watched Congress surrender its constitutional authority to this president without question. We have watched people killed by officials who called it all “the line of duty.” We have watched American citizens arrested, placed in camps, and deported in violation of their citizenship, the law, and due process.
The limits of street protests
The demonstrations made their statement. But the president and his administration remained largely unmoved, because protest alone carries no forcible power against the White House. Trump has come to regard himself as king, and the U.S. Supreme Court has done little to challenge that self-image.
But November 3rd, 2026, the midterm general election, is our day of reckoning, if we simply get out and vote. Our votes, cast together, can do the following:
● Change control of the U.S. House of Representatives by replacing the Republican members who rubber-stamp the president’s illegal actions instead of providing oversight, checks, and balances.
● At the local level, ensure that candidates who support Donald Trump are not elected to offices from which they would implement his policies close to home.
● Defeat, at every level, school board, city council, county supervisor, Congress, state legislature, governor, the candidates who depend on our silence. The excuse that “my vote doesn’t count” must end now. This is how we guarantee no king. This is how we stop ICE, stop deportations without due process, stop troops in our streets, and stop unauthorized military conflicts that put our nation’s security at risk.
If the millions who marched on “No Kings Day” join the millions already committed to defeating gerrymandered districts and overwhelming this president’s efforts to suppress or intimidate voters, we can end this would-be king’s reign before his final two years are up.
No contest left unchecked
This is not a call to sit back and hope someone else handles it. Every school board seat, every city council race, every state legislative district that goes uncontested by an engaged electorate is a door left open. The same local offices we too often skip on the ballot are the ones that decide how aggressively Trump’s policies get carried out in our own neighborhoods, in our schools, our police departments, our housing authorities. There is no such thing as a race too small to matter this cycle.
By turning out ourselves, and turning out everyone around us, neighbors, coworkers, congregations, campuses, we the people can make November 3rd, 2026, the true No Kings Day. We can take back our jobs, our healthcare, our gas and food prices, our housing, and our guaranteed freedoms of speech and movement.
Let’s be ready to vote so we won’t have to get ready later. Let’s vote early, and let’s undermine every effort to delay our vote on Election Day.
Dr. John E. Warren is the Publisher of the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper and Chairman of the Board of Directors, NNPA.