Organizers exhort women to vote for change at U.S. rallies
Thousands of mostly young women in masks rallied Saturday in the nation’s capital and other U.S. cities, exhorting voters to oppose President Donald Trump and his fellow Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 elections.
The latest of rallies that began with a massive women’s march the day after Trump’s January 2017 inauguration was playing out during the coronavirus pandemic, and demonstrators were asked to wear face coverings and practice social distancing.
Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, opened the event by asking people to keep their distance from one another, saying that the only superspreader event would be the recent one at the White House. She talked about the power of women to end Trump’s presidency.
“His presidency began with women marching and now it’s going to end with woman voting. Period,” she said.
“Vote for your daughter’s future,” read one sign. “Fight like a girl,” said another.
Demonstrators rallied in dozens of cities to signal opposition to Trump and his policies, especially the push to fill
the seat of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before Election Day.
A socially distanced march was held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, outside the dormitory where Ginsburg lived as an undergraduate student.
In New York, a demonstrator wearing a Donald Trump mask stood next to a statue of George Washington at Federal Hall outside the New York Stock Exchange.
“We Dissent,” said a cardboard sign carried by a young woman wearing a red mask with small portraits of the liberal
Supreme Court justice whose Sept. 18 death sparked the rush by Republicans to replace her with a conservative.
People wearing masks gathered peacefully under sunny skies on the City Hall steps in Portland, Oregon, to sing and listen to speakers. One speaker called for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
In Washington, the demonstrators started with a rally at Freedom Plaza, then marched toward Capitol Hill, finishing in front of the Supreme Court, where they were met by a handful of anti-abortion activists.