Signs aplenty at New Haven’s No Kings.
“I feel totally betrayed by the [Republican] Party,” David Levine said on the Green on Saturday. “I was a Republican because I believed in free markets and free institutions, not the dismantlement of these institutions.”
Levine offered that personal-political trajectory as he joined dozens of people downtown for a “No Kings” rally where attendees called for early voting ahead of the midterm elections.
The New Haven rally was one of thousands to take place across the country on Saturday — and just the latest mass demonstration against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies.
Levine, a self-described former “very partisan” Republican, said he grew troubled by the party’s denial of climate change even before Trump and that Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions pushed him away.
Levine also said his son works at the White House. “We don’t see eye to eye,” he said, but “we get along in spite of that fact.”
Saturday’s rally was organized by Indivisible Greater New Haven, led by Maggie Marcarelli. Organizers set up a table where attendees could sign up to drive voters to the polls once early voting begins on Monday, Oct. 19.
During the rally, many attendees took turns at the microphone to share their reasons for voting early. Women’s rights, veterans’ rights, the release of the Epstein files, and abolishing ICE were among the issues they raised. Despite their different priorities, some attendees shared a common goal: elect Democrats to flip control of the House and the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro was among those working the crowd.
“Look at this crowd of folks,” she said. “These are people who want to fight back.”
For Lili Fuller, fighting back means flipping Congress.
“I’m really hoping that we can flip the House and the Senate,” said Fuller, “because that’s the only way we’re going to be able to get any change.”
Fuller, a Milford resident, said she has attended previous No King protests. She traveled from Milford to attend the rally in New Haven alongside her friends Tom O’Neil from Milford and Mark Wollenweider from Trumbull. Milford’s own rally was replaced by an artisan fair on that town’s green, so New Haven’s was the closest, she said.
O’Neil said winning the Senate is the key.
“If we can, we’ve got both houses of Congress,” he said. “It becomes easier to block Trump’’s initiatives. It’s gonna really gum up the works for the next two years.”
Ellen Greist, from the Unitarian Society of New Haven, has been attending rallies and protests for almost 60 years. She said Unitarian Universalist congregations from across Connecticut have been organizing to get more people involved.
“Democracy may die in silence,” she said, “but democracy lives in love.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled David Levine’s last name as Lavine.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro works the crowd.