Yesterday, millions of people across the US participated in over 3000 events as part of the third No Kings Day. My team and I collected surveys from 198 people who were randomly selected from the thousands who assembled for the No Kings 3 event in Washington, DC, which was organized by the local group FreeDC.
Consistent with the turnout at large scale protests against the Trump regime since it first took office in 2017, the majority of participants at the event were female (54%), predominantly White (86%), middle-aged (mean and median age were 48), had voted for the democratic candidate in the previous presidential election (93%), and were highly educated (90% of the crowd reported having a university degree or more).
What was different at No Kings 3 was that war was one of the top motivations listed: 73% of participants reported peace/anti-war as a motivation for joining, making it the third most common motivation behind immigration (76%), and Trump (75%).
In addition to asking our usual question about support for organizations who engage in civil disobedience, which continues to be universally supported (98%), we also asked new questions about confrontation. Respondents were asked if they support “social movements taking more confrontational action against the Trump Administration.” Most of the crowd (79%) agreed generally and 69% reported that they personally would participate if given the opportunity.
The organizers of No Kings Day are calling for participation in a national day of economic disruption on May Day, which would be more confrontational than participating in a peaceful rally and or march on a weekend day. The data we collected from participants in No Kings 3 in DC suggest many are open and ready to heed this call.
Dana R Fisher 