NM U.S. Sen. Luján: ‘Keep showing up, keep speaking, keep standing strong.’
As a local grunge band played their final song of the morning, they set the tone for the rest of the day’s remarks at Saturday’s No Kings protest in Albuquerque’s Montgomery Park.
“Well maybe they’re the fascists, America,” the New Mexico band ShyGuy belted out, in a modified cover of Green Day’s 2004 anti Iraq-war hit “American Idiot.” “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”
Protestors across the state flocked to the park in northeast Albuquerque to protest what they described as the Trump administration’s attacks on elections, the war in Iran and the Epstein files. The event played out as others did all across the country, with millions expected by day’s end.
In Albuquerque, as the sun loomed overhead, attendees gathered to hear from Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who previously ran to be governor of Georgia and worked to boost statewide voter turnout in the 2020 election.
“Across this country, we have watched the devolution of democracy in real time,” she told a standing room-only crowd in Albuquerque. “You have someone who was elected president, but makes himself a dictator.”
She took aim at the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives nationally and said that she viewed the effort as inherently anti-American.
“DEI is in our DNA in America,” she said.
While rallygoers weren’t cheering on speakers on the stage or booing occupants of the White House, they were busy showing off their handmade signs, piñatas and shirts to one another.
Mike and Tracy Eder of Rio Rancho brought a Trump piñata with them that had a note taped across its back: “Destroyer of Democracy.”
“No candy in this piñata. Nothing but sh-t,” Tracy shouted at passersby.
Mike Miles of Albuquerque sat on the grass with a sign he wrote himself. He changed the words to Martin Niemöller’s famous “First They Came” poem.
“First they came for the immigrants. I did not speak because I was not an immigrant,” his adaptation read. “Then the Blacks. I did not speak out because I was not Black. Then they came for the journalists. I did not speak out because I was not a journalist. Then they came for the Muslims and I did not speak out because I was not a Muslim. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
At the park’s outskirts, vendors and volunteers set up a line of tents to sell flags with slogans such as “We the people are pissed off” and to hand out water on the dry spring day. Volunteers ran voter registration booths and some elected officials met with their constituents.
Sen. Harold Pope (D-Albuquerque), who is currently running for lieutenant governor, was there in a custom baseball jersey that read “For Lt. Gov” across the front. He told Source NM he thought it was important to be there to show his constituents that local officials can also push back on the federal administration.
“It gives people a chance to show with numbers that we are upset and disgusted with what’s happening in D.C.,” he said.
Deb Haaland, the former U.S. Interior Secretary who is currently seeking the Democratic nomination to be New Mexico’s next governor, met with rallygoers in the afternoon, moments before Abrams took the state. Haaland, who previously represented New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives, told Source NM that she has “already fought Trump and won.”
“I got sworn into Congress during a Trump shutdown. I know how to handle Trump,” she said. “I got five bills passed and signed into law by Donald Trump.”
Haaland, who will face Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman in the June 2 primary election, said she believes this year’s elections will show that New Mexico is an important national player and said she wants to ensure the state can hold the federal government accountable. Previously, she has announced plans to ban ICE agents from wearing face masks while on the job and to prohibit them from operating within 500 yards of schools and child care facilities, state courthouses and government buildings, religious institutions, health clinics, public parks and “significant cultural sites.”
“The governor is the first line of defense against the worst policies coming out of this administration,” she said. “What he’s doing isn’t new to me.”
Speakers throughout the day expressed solidarity with Minnesota, and Indivisible Santa Fe, which organized the event, handed out whistles to attendees intended to help people alert others to the presence of ICE agents in their communities.
Scott Romans, the group’s communications lead, told the crowd that 5,000 whistles had been distributed.
He said one reason it was important for people to have the whistles is to help call attention. “Just imagine the lies our government would be telling us if there hadn’t been people around with whistles and phones to capture the truth about these events,” he said.
The second reason for people to wear their whistles “at all times is to show solidarity with those who are most at risk under this administration. It is no mistake. It is no mistake that ICE is poorly trained, unprofessional and reckless. Trump wants us to fear him, and he wants us to fear his paramilitary thugs. But when you wear your whistle in public, you are telling those who are most at risk and most fearful that you are not OK with what is going on in this nation, that you will stand by them in their vulnerability and that in the face of this tyranny, you will not remain silent.”
Romans told Source NM that while final crowd numbers wouldn’t be available until reviewing drone footage, based on online registration and participation, organizers expected 7,000 to 8,000 throughout the event.
“Every one of these has been larger than the last,” he said, “and we just want to bring more and more people out into the street so so that the global public can see that we are not happy with what’s going on in this country.”
One first-time No Kings attendee, Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, told Source NM Saturday’s event was the first that didn’t conflict with a U.S. Senate vote. He led the crowd in chants of “No Kings” and “No bull,” while calling out the Trump administration’s war in Iran; efforts to revamp how Americans vote; immigration crackdown; and higher grocery prices, among other topics, to an ever increasingly loud cheering crowd.
“Enough with this garbage,” he said. “You ready to vote? We got to show up in those numbers that everyone talked about, because this president’s gonna lie and cheat.”
After speaking, Luján told Source NM it felt “incredible” to be at the protest. “When you’re on the stage, [people] are as far as you can see it and the crowds go around the Capitol today, it’s absolutely incredible. Good energy.”
The one message he said he’d want to impart to attendees would be: “Keep showing up, keep speaking, keep standing strong. This is what it’s about. This president wants us to all give in and not to be involved and not participate. He wants to make us scared. And so this is a direct response to this president’s nonsense. I feel good seeing this today, and I’ll tell you what: Everything I saw on my way over here, across America, millions and millions of people gathering today. More people than the last one; more people than the time before.”
