Tens of thousands at ‘No Kings’ protests in Minnesota mourn violence targeting state politicians

A crowd of up to 30,000 descended Saturday on the State Capitol to march in opposition to the Trump administration, taking to the streets just hours after authorities reported shootings that left former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband dead and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife seriously wounded.

With the gunman still at large Saturday evening and evidence suggesting he was aware of the “No Kings” demonstrations scheduled throughout the state, the State Patrol urged people to stay away from the marches. But event organizers in St. Paul, Duluth, Rochester and elsewhere chose to carry on.

“None of us knew what to do other than to come and be here for each other,” said Julie Baumeister of Women’s March Minnesota, who emceed the rally at the Capitol.

A few of the speakers billed for the St. Paul rally, including Gov. Tim Walz, did not appear. But Attorney General Keith Ellison spoke, calling Hortman a good friend and urging the crowd to work in her memory.

“She was a powerful political leader, but she was also a compassionate and kind person,” said Ellison. “She proved that you can be a politician and be a good person.”

Some marchers acknowledged feeling nervous about the potential for political violence. Others were defiant.

“It’s kind of scary for people,” said Nancy Timms of South St. Paul. She added: “I was really happy seeing all of the police presence.”

No significant counterprotest appeared in St. Paul during the three-hour demonstration, one of dozens that had been planned across Minnesota and among hundreds nationwide. The rallies coincided with President Donald Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., for the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also fell on the president’s 79th birthday and Flag Day.

Rallies continued as planned in St. Paul, Duluth and Rochester. In St. Cloud, organizers canceled their demonstration due to public safety concerns, the police reported.

Heather Friedli, an organizer with Minnesota 50501, said event organizers had trained hundreds of volunteers, including crowd de-escalators and medics, to work at the event in St. Paul. Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March and the Minnesota AFL-CIO were the other organizations largely responsible for organizing the demonstrations.

An hour before thousands marched down John Ireland Boulevard to the Capitol, Pat Day and her husband, Pat, of Minnetonka, joined others waiting in the parking lot of St. Paul College. They said they were making their first-ever political march because they “just couldn’t tolerate it anymore.” The couple said they were moderately concerned for their safety, but not enough to stay home.

Others said they were motivated to demonstrate by the stepped-up tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, including recent University of Minnesota graduate Andrew Seo and his friend, Maria Garrido-Lavender. Seo, whose parents immigrated from Korea, said that immigrants he knew had been targeted in ICE raids and deported.

Wearing matching T-shirts that read “Abolish ICE keep families together,” Marcus and Kat Mazurowski of Philadelphia said they stopped in St. Paul while traveling. They wanted to demonstrate against “unprecedented attacks on our democracy, lack of due process for all, human rights violations,” said Marcus. “It’s great to see so many people out.”

Holly Zschokke and her son, Carlos Rosas, said they attended the rally because of family. Holly’s husband immigrated from Mexico and became a citizen, so the reports of families being torn apart by ICE raids have felt deeply personal, she said. “It’s an attack on my whole family.”

Rosas said he wants to see democratic norms restored. “I want America to be what America was back in the day,” he said.

The State Patrol estimated that 25,000 to 30,000 people attended the Capitol rally. Speaking to the crowd, civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong said she had no intention of staying home Saturday.

“I don’t know how may text messages and calls I received this morning because of what happened in the middle of the night,” she said, “and of course I had to come out and stand with the people. We will not be afraid. We will not turn around. That’s exactly what they want us to do.”

In Rochester, where more than 1,000 people attended the rally, Krisanne Novak said she was “totally disgusted” with the Trump administration’s actions against immigrants and concerned the administration could turn into a dictatorship. She called the shootings of the two lawmakers “terroristic.”

“I don’t want to die knowing I hadn’t made any effort to stop this,” said Novak, 69. “I don’t feel very powerful, but at least I can do this.”

Kim Morales, 29, of Rochester said she came with her friends to march in the rally for people who couldn’t attend or were too afraid. “We are the voices of change,” she said. “We cannot stay silent.”

Many of the rallygoers proceeded to the local NAACP Juneteenth celebration at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, where they heard Rochester Mayor Kim Norton say her heart was broken by the death of her friend Hortman.

“Our country is broken, and so I’m asking all of us to stand together,” she said.

At the “No Kings” demonstration in Duluth, some 1,500 people marched along the Lakewalk from Leif Erikson Park to downtown. Lee Stuart, 71, wore a sun hat decorated with a wreath of American flags that flapped on the windy morning. News of Saturday’s shootings, Stuart said, “deepens my concerns for our country. Stop the threats and intimidation and bring back civility.“

Janet Ryan of Minneapolis, who wore a Burger King crown festooned with joker cards, is spending the summer in Duluth and was drawn to the event to protest Trump’s treatment of people and the polarization of the military. “You have to fight for neighbors and friends,” she said.

The crowd on Superior Street in downtown Duluth, teeming with flags and honking, grew to thousands as the afternoon went on. A woman with a megaphone led a chant of “This is what democracy looks like!” and “Hey hey/Ho ho/Donald Trump has got to go!”

Emmy Martin, intern at the Minnesota Star Tribune, contributed to this story.