‘It helps to know you’re not alone’: Small towns in ‘ruby-red’ counties joined Saturday’s Hands Off! protests
As thousands gathered in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene to protest the Trump administration Saturday, hundreds more assembled in smaller towns across the region.
About 3 million people joined more than 1,400 protests in all 50 states, according to the Hands Off! organizers.
In the remote mountain town of Republic, Washington, about 25 people assembled at a corner on the main street.
“Ferry County is blood-to-ruby-red,” organizer Rod Hubbard said. “So, that was a good turnout for this town.”
Hubbard held a sign with a downward graph representing the Dow Jones Industrial Average labeled “The Trump Crash.” Over three hours, they received honks and waves from cars and pedestrians passing by, as well as a few “obnoxious” reactions from trucks blasting music, revving engines and squealing tires.
Hubbard said he recently moved back to Republic after living there from the mid-’70s to the mid-’90s. Those who attended got to know each other by talking about their personal histories that brought them to protest.
“Many of those folks were like me, a part of the minority politically in this community, so they expressed gratitude that someone put that together,” Hubbard said.
At least three protests came together across Stevens County in Kettle Falls, Colville and Chewelah.
A video on Facebook shows protesters standing on all four corners of a busy intersection on U.S. Highway 97 in Omak, Washington, chanting, “This is what democracy looks like!”
The Columbia Basin Herald estimated 75 to 80 people gathered in Sun Basin Plaza in downtown Ephrata, the Grant County seat. Hundreds protested in downtown Walla Walla, The Union-Bulletin reported. The Lewiston Tribune estimated 250 to 300 people lined Bridge Street in Clarkston, at least 400 attended a rally in Moscow’s Friendship Square and hundreds gathered in Pullman.
The Bonner County Democrats reported “nearly 800” showed up in Sandpoint. A panning video showed crowds in front of the courthouse stretching down both sides of First Avenue. Photos showed women dressed in red robes from the Margaret Atwood novel turned Hulu sereies, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and others holding “Hands Off” signs for things like public lands, “our bodies,” Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Other signs said, “Tariffs are a tax on working Idaho families,” “How’s your 401k?” and “Elvis is America’s only king.”
Karen Matthee, chair of the Bonner County Democrats, said she believes it is a record turnout, even exceeding local Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.
The Democrats helped promote the event organized by the 50501 Movement chapter and Indivisible Sandpoint, but it included moderate Republicans, independents and veterans groups, Matthee said. Other residents came down from neighboring Boundary County.
The Sandpoint Police Department kept a respectful distance, and everything went peacefully, Matthee said.
With so much happening right now, both with the Trump administration and the Idaho Legislature, Matthee said, it is hard to know where to focus resistance as an activist. But the weekend’s activities renewed her belief in the power of protest to make voices heard.
“It helps to know you’re not alone,” she said.
Women’s health remains a salient issue in Sandpoint, two years after Bonner General closed its obstetrics unit as doctors fled the state’s abortion law. Matthee said she is fighting for health exceptions for abortion to bring doctors back to North Idaho.