{"id":243774,"date":"2026-03-30T19:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243774\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:30:31","slug":"no-kings-may-have-broken-national-record-but-bay-area-numbers-appear-to-lag-from-earlier-protests-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243774\/","title":{"rendered":"No Kings may have broken national record, but Bay Area numbers appear to lag from earlier protests \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 125,000 protesters took to Bay Area streets Saturday as part of the third nationwide No Kings protest<\/a>, with a primary focus on the war in Iran and the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement, according to a poll of organizers conducted by Bay Area News Group.<\/p>\n

The tens of thousands of local participants were part of the roughly 8 million protesters nationwide across more than 3,000 individual events \u2014 marking the largest single-day protest turnout in modern American history, according to No Kings national organizers.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area attendance count, though not yet complete, may have experienced a signifcant drop from previous local turnout numbers.<\/p>\n

The first No Kings Day<\/a>, which drew roughly 140,000 participants across the Bay Area<\/a>, coincided with a military parade in Washington D.C. in honor of Trump\u2019s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the military. The second event in October, which Republicans decried as \u201chate America\u201d rallies<\/a>, drew as many as 220,000 in the Bay Area on the high end of estimates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Protesters in the Bay Area rallied at more than 50 protests planned in cities stretching from Gilroy north to San Francisco and east to Antioch, aiming to push back against the Trump administration\u2019s authoritarian moves. This marks the third nationwide No Kings day, with protests in June 2025 and October 2025 drawing similarly large crowds across the region.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the first No Kings drew crowds of 5 million<\/a>. The second boasted 7 million participants.<\/p>\n

People came out for many issues that galvanized people at the previous two No Kings rallies, said Nancy Latham, an organizer with Indivisible East Bay, including pushing back against the actions of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. But there were new issues on people\u2019s minds, as well, such as the war in Iran. Because that has been \u201con people\u2019s minds,\u201d there was \u201ca pretty big no war contingent\u201d who showed up to the protest, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protests themselves create a situation where we\u2019re all seeing each other,\u201d Latham said. \u201cWe see ourselves in this collective, and we realize it\u2019s not just me. It\u2019s not just me feeling this way. There\u2019s so many other people who are saying no to an authoritarian, no ICE, no wars, no secret police kidnapping our neighbors. You see yourself in that, and it creates this identity as we are a people standing up to the authoritarian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can get a sense of momentum \u2014 that this is actually growing,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Latham added that because No Kings creates \u201csuch a broad umbrella,\u201d it attracts a broad swath of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these people can agree on the whole host of things that they don\u2019t want, all of which are related to MAGA in the White House,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In San Francisco, which generally attracts the largest crowds of protesters, organizers estimated that about 60,000 people turned out into the streets to march from the Embarcadero to Civic Center, said Liliana Soroceanu, an organizers with Indivisible SF.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the march and the rally were peaceful and joyous,\u201d Indivisible SF said in a press release. \u201cParticipants\u2019 main message was that America does not belong to greedy billionaires or strongmen who\u2019d rule through fear. It belongs to us, the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In San Jose, a protest at St. James Park downtown attracted a crowd of about 10,000, said James Kuszmaul, an organizer with 50501 San Jose. At Oakland\u2019s rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza \u2014 one of three events planned in the city \u2014 there were 20,000 attendees, said Nancy Latham, an organizer with Indivisible East Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy was amazing, as always,\u201d Latham said. \u201cIt was very joyful, very family friendly, really funny signs \u2014 everybody just happy to be together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Walnut Creek, about 12,500 people participated in No Kings day, said Kathryn Durham-Hammer, an organizer with Indivisible ReSisters Contra Costa. Elsewhere across Contra Costa County, a total of about 1,126 people joined in on several protests planned by Indivisible East Contra Costa County \u2014 in Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood and Pittsburg, said organizer Kathy King. About 600 to 679 joined in at a protest in Pinole, said Derlin Hsu, co-founder of Indivisible North East Bay.<\/p>\n

Protests in smaller cities similarly drew sizable crowds. In the town of Los Gatos, where residents lined Los Gatos Boulevard outside the Tesla dealership, there were 1,250 attendees, said Karla Albright, co-lead of Together We Will Los Gatos. In Hayward, 1,780 people turned out for a protest planned by Indivisible Eden Area, said media manager Pat Payne. In Pleasanton, more than 3,000 people participated, said Kyoko Takayama, an organizer with Indivisible Tri-Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt absolutely was crucial to have people locally showing up as part of the national movement, and also to make local connections with groups that are taking action everyday to push back against this republican regime,\u201d said Mary Claire Neumann, chair of All Rise Alameda, who helped to plan the city\u2019s No Kings protest.<\/p>\n

On the Peninsula, protesters lined long stretches of El Camino Real at several protests planned along the route. Stretching through Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto, about 10,000 protesters lined the throughway, said IdaRose Sylvester, an organizer with Together We Will.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very pleased, and the energy was higher than most of our previous events,\u201d Sylvester said. \u201cReally electric and positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the No Kings Street Fest in Palo Alto along El Camino Real, more than 4,000 attendees listened to musical acts and participated in activity stations, said Michael Slind, an organizer with Indivisible Palo Alto Plus. In Menlo Park, there were 1,075, said Lucia Tedesco, president of the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County. A spokesperson for Indivisible Mid-Peninsula estimated that 2,000 people had attended a rally in Redwood City.<\/p>\n

The nationwide turnout was also a good sign to protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to keep growing. We want to give a sense of momentum,\u201d Latham said. \u201cPeople need to see themselves in something that is growing and getting more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing report. Check back for updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 125,000 protesters took to Bay Area streets Saturday as part of the third nationwide No Kings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[389,184,7,8,400,390,409,392,536,332,393,187,2871,14,19378,842,181,23,205,188,2649,194,100,143,195,395,13,7361,5572,42552,101,396,88,90,89,42553,397,198,200,203,398,1695,399],"class_list":["post-243774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-central-contra-costa","tag-city-politics","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-donald-trump","tag-east-bay","tag-east-contra-costa","tag-gilroy","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-iran","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-los-altos","tag-menlo-park","tag-mountain-view","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-palo-alto","tag-peninsula","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-redwood-city","tag-san-benito-county","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-juan-bautista","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-sunnyvale","tag-tri-valley","tag-trump-administration","tag-west-contra-costa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}