A few years ago, Allison Posner was barely involved in politics.\n<\/p>\n
Now the 42-year-old mother of two from Maplewood, New Jersey, hands out food and diapers to immigrant families outside a nearby detention facility. She waves signs on a highway overpass between school pickups and orthodontist appointments. And this weekend, she\u2019ll lead\u00a0a No Kings protest march<\/a>\u00a0across this affluent town alongside her husband, her children and thousands of others who are convinced\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0represents a direct threat to American democracy.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe people in the suburbs are definitely radicalizing,\u201d said Posner, a freelance actor.\n<\/p>\n A growing faction of concerned citizens living in suburban communities across the United States \u2014 places once known for political moderation or even conservatism \u2014 are increasingly positioned on the front lines of the anti-Trump resistance. More than a year into the Republican president\u2019s second term, the soccer moms are becoming bona fide activists taking to their well-manicured streets to fight Trump and his allies.\n<\/p>\n The leftward lurch could cost Republicans control of Congress for the president\u2019s final two years in office. It could also reshape the Democratic Party by elevating a fresh crop of fiery progressive candidates emboldened to push back against the Trump administration more aggressively than the establishment may prefer.\n <\/p>\n Indivisible, the activist organization spearheading the third round of No Kings protests this weekend, said roughly two-thirds of more than 3,000 planned demonstrations will be held outside urban areas. Overall, more than 9 million people are expected to turn out nationwide for what leaders predict will be the largest day of protesting in U.S. history.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be everywhere,\u201d Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin said.\n<\/p>\n Organizers said sign-ups have been especially enthusiastic in suburban areas with high-profile congressional races like Scottsdale, Arizona; Langhorne, Pennsylvania; East Cobb, Georgia; and here in northern New Jersey\u2019s 11th District, which holds a special election April 16.\n<\/p>\n Democratic voters last month chose Analilia Mejia, a former political director for Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, as their candidate to replace Mikie Sherrill, the more moderate Democrat who was recently elected as New Jersey\u2019s governor.\n<\/p>\n Posner said she\u2019s excited to have a fighter represent her district, someone who can channel the outrage she sees every day.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m seeing people from the PTA or the neighborhood who would have never joined a protest in the past, who are now asking how they can get involved,\u201d Posner said. \u201cThis is not some other people\u2019s fight. This is our fight.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u2018Our hair is on fire\u2019<\/p>\n For decades, affluent suburbs like those in northern New Jersey helped elect Republicans who fit the districts they represented: business-oriented, culturally moderate and disinterested in ideological fights.\n<\/p>\n That began to change in the Trump era.\n<\/p>\n