USA TODAY International Edition
Turning up the heat
Thousands march to send GOP message
CHICAGO – Balloons depicting President Donald Trump as a baby hovered over thousands of signholding activists in downtown Chicago on Saturday who hoped to send a defiant message to Republicans ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The demonstration, dubbed “March to the Polls,” was the first of more than a dozen planned across the nation ahead of next month’s elections, where Democrats aim to gain control of Congress. The gatherings are follow-ups to the Women’s March movement sparked by Trump’s election. Those marches drew hundreds of thousands to rallies in every state and more than 30 countries to denounce the administration. The several thousand who rallied Saturday didn’t meet the 350,000 originally projected by organizers. Protesters brought along signs and chanted “dump Trump” in the heart of the city as several candidates,
who set up booths, pitched their platforms and recruited volunteers. One candidate, Ja’Mal Green, who is running in February’s nonpartisan mayoral election in Chicago, even set up a punching bag with a photo of newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on it. The left-leaning crowd was invited to use the bag to release their frustration. The rally drew speakers from across the nation, all with motivating messages of why voting matters more than ever. “In a society that tries so, so hard to suppress our voices, the act of simply going out and voting is an act of resilience and resistance,” Lauren Hogg, a survivor of February’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, told the crowd. Some at the march said they feel desperate to see Democrats win in November and become a more meaningful check on Trump. But they acknowledged that polls showing Republicans gaining ground in Senate battles following the Kavanaugh confirmation have left them frustrated. Organizers put a special emphasis on turning out the youth vote. Historically, participation among young voters is weak in midterm elections. In 2014, about 19.9 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds cast a ballot, marking the lowest youth voter participation in 40 years. Amani Johnson, 20, an anti-violence activist with the Chicago youth group BRAVE, told young voters they need to do their part if they want to change American politics. “We have no one to blame but ourselves because we don’t vote,” Johnson said. “Our lives are on the line.” Heather Booth, the abortion rights activist who helped found the Jane Collective in the late 1960s when the procedure was illegal, told participants they are in a “time of great peril” but also one of inspiration. “We are the future if you organize,” Booth said. “It’s been true in history, and it’s true now.” Dee Dee McCarthy, 62, said she traveled from South Bend, Indiana, to express her anger with the Trump administration over Kavanaugh and tax cuts. But she also came to make amends. McCarthy, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, sat out the general election. “I was so mad about how the Democratic Party treated Bernie that I refused to be part of it,” she said. “I feel so much guilt for that. That’s why I am here.” Organizers for the rallies said they want to use the moment to get women and allies to the polls and bolster getout-the-vote efforts before midterms.