How Democrats can capitalize on their ‘No Kings’ momentum |Opinion

One striking thing about the national “No Kings” rally turnout on Saturday is how the mass engagement against President Donald Trump was the antithesis of the earlier detachment that put him back in the White House.

In 2024, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris received 6.2 million fewer votes than Joe Biden did when he defeated Trump in 2020. Trump, meanwhile, received just 3 million more votes in 2024 than he garnered in 2020.

The Biden voters who went missing for Harris or turned to Trump nearly match the number who showed up to oppose him. Most of the “No Kings” protesters were likely also Harris voters, but the similarity between the Biden-Harris gap and Saturday’s crowds still resonates. It underscores that in politics winning – and losing – is about getting voters to come out.

That is the hope and the dilemma that the “No Kings” protests present for the Democrats. Opposition to Trump energizes the Democratic base, but he won’t (we think) be on the ballot in 2028. How will the party transfer the energy against Trump into enthusiasm for Democrats?

The answer starts with tone. Former first lady Michelle Obama said at the Democratic National Convention on July 25, 2016 “When they go low, we go high.” But does that still apply when the president posts an AI video of himself going high in a jet to go lower than any other president by figuratively dropping excrement on “No Kings” protesters?

Well, Michelle Obama is still right. Going down to Trump’s juvenile level won’t lift the Democrats. Decency, like honesty, is the best policy. Let Trump and his allies debase themselves. It won’t win them new voters and it will turn many away.

Next is the message. Democratic strategist James Carville has argued that the party doesn’t need to change a thing. Just stand by and watch Trump politically implode. He may be right. By 2028, Trump’s tariffs and general misrule may have the economy in a recession and his administration choked by scandals. Democrats could win by default.

But other Democrats are engaged in post-defeat soul searching. They wonder how Harris finished so far short of Biden. Some say the party’s priorities don’t address the economic stress felt by most Americans.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a first-term Democrat who won in a state that Trump carried, recently told The New York Times that Democrats should focus more on pocketbook issues. “Look, I think there was a lot of thought post-Obama, that if we focus on equity and justice, then that somehow would be the unifier of the Democratic coalition,” he said. “It ends up, the biggest unifier of the Democratic coalition — Black, white, Latino immigrants, Asians, everybody else — is the personal checking account.”

Of course, money is a common concern, but it’s also a soulless, mercenary base to build a party around. Republicans have already shown that. And neglecting pocketbook issues may not be as central to Democrats’ troubles as some think. Democrats have long backed tax policies and programs that help working-class Americans.

It’s also notable that while inflation is often cited as the reason for Trump’s 2024 election, the economy had improved rapidly under President Biden, inflation was falling, unemployment stayed low, the stock market rose. Other things were also at work — concern about immigrants, crime fears and resistance to the reality of a Black, female president.

Instead of pandering to voters, Democrats would do well to challenge them. Being a citizen of the United States isn’t about the price of eggs. It’s about protecting the value of American freedom.

Trump urged voters to vote based on their fears of cultural change and their resentments and enough of them did. Now we have a shutdown government, a precarious economy, alienated allies, growing government corruption, troops in the cities and a president who says he hates his opponents and portrays himself dropping crap on those who protest his actions.

Democrats can adjust their legislative priorities, but in the end their central message should be an appeal to our best instincts, no matter how much Trump appeals to our worst.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com

This story was originally published October 22, 2025 at 7:56 AM.