Demonstrators Reflect on Past Protests and Headlines

Saint Paul, Minnesota – Roughly 100,000 people crowded the grounds of the state capitol Saturday for the Twin Cities’ third No Kings rally since June.

Hours before the main program began, all the indicators of Minnesota’s ingrained protest culture were evident:

Handmade signs bore familiar slogans. Demonstrators recalled chants as easily as singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ The pace of the march towards the Capitol was slow and deliberate.

But even among the practiced protestors, some were demonstrating for the first time ever.

“We don’t care how cold it was today, we bundled them up and we came on out,” Carrie Van Diver, a new protestor, said.

She wasn’t alone: the Bloomington mother brought her two young children with her.

“I’m really proud of them wanting to be out here,” Van Diver said of her kids, each waving their own homemade sign.

She said it’s been hard to explain the last nine months of national headlines in child-friendly terms, even when the news hits close to home.

“She actually saw at her bus stop, ICE came through. She’s in kindergarten,” Van Diver said. “We need to stand together as a community.”

Other protestors found similar motivation in Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement that centered on Minnesota during the first two months of 2026.

“I’ve been to probably about a dozen protests,” Tom Arndorfer, another protestor, said. “It’s been tough, and I think it’s going to continue to be tough.”

For others, the spirit of protest stretches back decades.

“That’s a bucket list item for me, to be at a protest with Joan Baez,” Juanita Borton, of St. Paul, said of Saturday’s big-name performers.

Borton remembers seeing Vietnam War protests as a child and wanting to participate. After attending other protests over the years, Saturday was somewhat of a full-circle moment:

She brought along her grandson, marking his first protest.

“It’s not even about what I want to do, it’s what we have to do,” Borton said.

“It feels good to do this. I don’t know what could be better than that.”