Nearly 20,000 protestors gathered in Downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday in solidarity with the national “No Kings” movement.
The protest, organized by Indivisible Pittsburgh, was one of thousands of demonstrations that took place across the country on March 28. Speakers, including local government officials and advocates, called for protestors to continue their civic engagement beyond this protest, encouraging them to support local activist organizations and vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
This was the third national day of “No Kings” since the movement began in June 2025. A second day of protests took place on Oct. 18 in response to what participants perceived as threats to democracy.
Since October, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have declined, with voters raising concerns over his handling of immigration and the war in Iran.
On Saturday, protestors in Pittsburgh held up signs as they marched down Grant Street and turned onto William Penn Avenue before stopping in Mellon Square. The chants began with “Hey-hey, ho-ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and became calls for “No war” and “ICE out.”
In front of the City-County Building, Mayor Corey O’Connor addressed the upcoming midterm elections to the crowd of protestors.
“Today, your voices are going to be heard throughout downtown, throughout the City of Pittsburgh, but we still need your voices to make big changes,” O’Connor said. “We need your voices this November to make sure we keep overturning the house.”
Eugene DePasquale, chair of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, encouraged those in attendance to make sure they were registered to vote.
“This [November] is the most important midterm election in the history of our country,” DePasquale said. “[We] win this thing in November, and then we win Pennsylvania in 2028, and we get this country back on track.”
Danny Ceisler, the Bucks County Sheriff, said he came to the protest from five hours away to talk about the importance of civic engagement on a local level, which he learned after serving in the army.
“I realized that the true threat to our constitution — the existential threat — wasn’t Al-Qaeda. It wasn’t the Taliban,” Ceisler said. “The battle to defend our constitution wasn’t going to be fought in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the deserts of Iraq. It was going to be fought in the ballot box in places like Pennsylvania right here.”
Ceisler unseated the former sheriff of Bucks County in November 2025. He told The Pitt News he ran because he opposed the former sheriff’s partnership with ICE, which he terminated during the first week of his term.
“You can’t change the whole world all at once. You have to take bite-sized pieces in your community and fight fast, and that’s what I did,” Ceisler said. “We’re trying to show people here, if you want to fight back, do it locally.”
Matt Jordan, lead community organizer at Casa San Jose, drew attention to ICE legislation in Pittsburgh. Though Allegheny County Council passed a bill in January prohibiting county employees from cooperating with ICE, Jordan said local police are still able to work with ICE.
“Every municipality must pass anti-cooperation legislation,” Jordan said. “[ICE’s actions are] cruelty dressed up as authority. We are not asking. We are not waiting. We are here. We are loud, and we are not going away.”
Jasiri X, co-founder of anti-violence group 1Hood Power, began his speech by condemning homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism and Islamophobia. He said these prejudices are all rooted in “a disease called white supremacy.”
“White supremacy will tell you that a man who had six chapter 11 bankruptcies named Donald Trump is a good businessman,” X said. “At the same time here in Pittsburgh, between 2007 and 2019, 551 banks did not give one single loan to a Black person in Pittsburgh. This is how white supremacy works.”
In an interview with The Pitt News, X said the “No Kings” rally was only the first step toward progress. He encouraged protestors to continue making an impact locally by supporting grassroots organizations and their efforts to bring communities together.
“The first step is coming together,” X said. “The next step is, ‘How do we actually begin to change policies? How do we make sure we elect people that we can overcome, and how do we support the most marginalized among us?’”
Kristen Capp, a resident of the greater Pittsburgh area, marched down Grant Street with her children.
“We’re tired and angry,” Capp said. “I have three children. All three of them are from the queer community, and we come down anytime we get a chance to make as much noise as possible.”
Ashley Cartwright, a Squirrel Hill resident, cited LGBTQ+ rights and immigration as “top tier” reasons for coming to the protest.
“I am here because our current administration lacks basic human decency, and we need to bring that back,” Cartwright said.
Pierre Robin, a resident of downtown Pittsburgh, started a chant with the words on his sign, which read “47 is a felon.”
“This country belongs to all of us,” Robin said. “If you ever go to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., read the names of the fallen. They’re Irish, Polish, Italian, Afro-American. The people that shed blood for this country come from all races. There’s only one race that counts, and that’s the human race.”