Local organizers, students and community members crowded by the Broome County Courthouse on Saturday’s “No Kings” rally to protest the Trump administration.

Spearheaded by Indivisible Binghamton, Citizen Action of New York and the national No Kings organization, thousands of people gathered downtown to hear speeches and songs from activists before marching up and down Court Street. Many carried homemade signs and chanted, with several passing cars honking in support. The Binghamton City protest was one of over 2,700 similar rallies held on Saturday, with over seven million protesters turning out nationwide.

Saturday’s No Kings protest was larger than the first, which took place on June 14 and saw five million protesters march at 2,100 different rallies in the United States. The No Kings rally was organized to protest against the Trump administration and its policies.

After brief introductions from Indivisible Binghamton leaders, local singer Jason Gonzalez led the crowd in singing the national anthem.

Rev. Kimberly Chastain of the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton delivered the opening speech. She began by telling white attendees that “justice doesn’t mean just us” before singing the first verse of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which the NAACP adopted in 1919 as the Black National Anthem. Chastain told the crowd that the movement has a place for all people “as long as you believe that everyone has a right to live and be free.”

Next, Linda Quilty, co-lead of Indivisible Binghamton, read a statement from Indivisible national and encouraged attendees to channel the energy of the rally into supporting local Democratic candidates and donate to support immigrant rights.

“Rallying is great, but look at all these people,” said Quilty. “If we all do something, we can get Democrats elected. That’s our power. We have to get elected locally.”

Ravo Root, a lead organizer at Citizen Action of New York, claimed President Donald Trump failed to deliver on his promise to lower the cost of living by pointing to high grocery and gas prices and inaccessible child care and health care. He also called for an end to the “defense industrial complex,” saying he was “sick of seeing the genocides around the world take place from our funding and our tax dollars.”

Root encouraged protesters to resist the federal government’s policies by channeling their energy toward supporting local Democrats like Miles Burnett, who is running against incumbent Mayor Jared Kraham in this year’s Binghamton City election.

“What we’re seeing on a local level is a mayor, Jared Kraham, who has failed on all of those affordability issues,” Root said in an interview with Pipe Dream.

“It is just a really sad state of affairs that we have a Republican party, and we have a mayor who’s following that MAGA Trump playbook,” Root continued.

In a statement to Pipe Dream, Kraham said that the protesters “peacefully exercised their First Amendment rights” to criticize “the chaos in Washington.” A campaign spokesperson told Pipe Dream that Kraham has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration and that the Burnett campaign “is trying to convince voters that the opposite is true.”

“Thankfully, Binghamton residents are smarter than that,” the spokesperson said. “They see Mayor Kraham for who he is — an independent and principled leader who has stood up to the Trump administration and refused to put the interests of a political party above doing what’s best for residents.”

Dana Cooper, a singer from Nashville, Tennessee, performed his original song, “Bend My Knee” — written in response to Trump’s inauguration — and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” Later on, Gonzalez returned to sing a song from “Les Misérables” and Amanda Jones took the stage to lead the crowd in singing “America the Beautiful.”

Burnett then delivered a speech encouraging attendees to “stand up, fight back” against human rights violations, federal funding cuts and ICE raids. He talked about the economic issues that residents face and called on protesters to vote and make their voices heard in local elections.

“The reason that I got into this fight is because I am fed up,” Burnett said. “I am fed up with the way things are going. So many of the challenges I saw growing up here remain today. People don’t even realize that we have 33 percent of our community here in Binghamton living in poverty — that is three times the national average.”

Many Binghamton University students also attended the rally, including members of organizations like the College Democrats, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

An anonymous member of SJP told Pipe Dream they attended to protest against Trump while ensuring that “Palestine is still incorporated in the conversation around antifascism.” Citing Israel’s reduction in humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip even after a ceasefire deal was announced, the student said securing the rights of Palestinians was “deeply interconnected with our own struggles against the ruling class.”

In a statement to Pipe Dream, the YDSA’s E-Board said members attended the protest to advocate for “a better future where the working class can thrive” and called on attendees to continue organizing beyond just the No Kings protests. Demonstrating against ICE raids, cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid and the influence of billionaires in politics are all tied to “the class struggle,” the organization said.

“As President Kennedy said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,’” Root said. “And today, we’re answering that call, aren’t we folks? We’re going to volunteer, we’re going to organize, we’re going to stand up for each other because we care about each other. Together, we will build the power to take our city and our country back.”