NEWSLINE – For three hours along Capital Boulevard in northeast Raleigh, the honking did not stop.
It wasn’t a traffic jam — from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, a steady stream of cars and trucks were honking their support for a No Kings protest that lined both sides of the divided highway, drawing thousands of demonstrators frustrated with the Trump administration.
The rally was awash with colorful characters — among them the Cookie Monster from the children’s show “Sesame Street,” a pink axolotl, dinosaurs and dragons of many different hues and giant yellow chickens.
Erin Grabau, who came wearing a skeletal unicorn ensemble, said she was inspired by demonstrators in Portland who dressed in inflatable frog costumes — but decided on a less elaborate outfit because, “in this economy, no, I’m sorry.”
“It was making a point of showing we’re not violent,” Grabau said. “We’re not causing violence. You can’t turn the narrative.”
Matt Mercer, spokesperson for the North Carolina Republican Party, condemned the protesters as radicals damaging the country.
“Far-left radical Democrats shut down the federal government to brag at these events they shut down the government to stop President Trump,” Mercer said in a statement. “These manufactured events do nothing but highlight how out of touch the radical left is with the American people and here in North Carolina, thousands of voters every month reject being labeled a Democrat.”
Gary Lucido, a Texas transplant in North Carolina, said he had voted Republican all his life before President Donald Trump came along. He said GOP descriptions of No Kings as “Hate America” protests — as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called them — are a “bunch of crap.”
“We love America. We’re here because we want to preserve America,” Lucido said at the Raleigh No Kings protest. “The ones that hate it are the ones that don’t believe in the Constitution.”
For many protesters, the No Kings rally was a family outing. All along Capital Boulevard, children and toddlers could be seen with their parents, some wearing costumes or face coverings of their own and others resting in strollers.
“They need to know when it’s appropriate to stand and fight, and sometimes standing and fighting is standing in a silly costume on the side of the road with a sign and screaming at the top of your lungs,” Grabau said.
Some also brought their four-legged friends. Jeffrey Cohn, a medical writer from Clayton, brought his dogs Bindi and Obi to the No Kings protest in Raleigh, and despite the honking and cheers, they stayed calm as can be.
Cohn came dressed as President Donald Trump’s error-filled “Liberation Day” tariff information sheet. He said it was a relief to be in the company of so many people just as distressed as he is at the direction America has taken.
“We are a majority, and the folks who are trying to destroy and burn, whether it’s for political reasons, whether it’s for Christian Nationalism, white supremacy reasons — there’s more of us who don’t feel that way than do feel that way,” he said.
The soundtrack at the protest was an eclectic combination, with David Bowie and Bob Dylan bleeding into No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” and Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me.” Protesters’ costumes and flags called to mind various pop culture icons, with one protester flying the flag of the rebellion from “Star Wars” and others dressed as characters like No Face from the anime film “Spirited Away.”
Top of mind for many of the rally-goers was fair voting maps, with North Carolina set to become the latest state to draw new districts at Trump’s direction to shore up the Republican majority in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Gerrymandering is cheating!” read one protester’s sign. Another featured QR codes linking to the proposed new congressional map and a submission form for public comment. “Tell the NC General Assembly: Stop gerrymandering,” that sign urged.
Recent polling shows that a vast majority of North Carolinians oppose partisan gerrymandering, including 87% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans.
Donna and Larry Shipman, activists who recently relocated from Pennsylvania, also came to No Kings to fight for their right to vote, pointing to key Voting Rights Act protections under threat at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We need to stand up and say, ‘No, you’re not going to take this away from us,’” said Donna Shipman. “The Supreme Court, they say racism is over. No, it’s not.”
The Raleigh event was just one of several in the Triangle area. No Kings protests in Cary, Apex, Durham and Carrboro also saw large turnouts. More than 50 events were planned in North Carolina, organizers said, among some 2,600 nationwide.
