At No Kings demonstrations held Oct. 17, some participants publicly urged voters to support Democrats, although organizers had instructed attendees not to endorse candidates or use partisan campaign messaging. The events were protests against President Donald Trump.
In Alexandria, Virginia, environmental engineer Nayely Cruz Hernandez, 26, told Fox News Digital that voters should “vote blue” and help Democrats win the House and Senate. She said the current Republican control of Congress and the presidency was why she attended. Hernandez also endorsed Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents Alexandria, Arlington and other Northern Virginia communities.
The report said the Alexandria gathering was advertised on the No Kings organizers’ official website. It also described other signs and displays there, including one calling for a “BLUE WAVE,” a sign reading “TRUMP MUST GO NOW!” and an inflatable caricature of Trump. The article characterized some of these messages as conflicting with organizers’ guidance against endorsing candidates or targeting individuals.
No Kings national spokesperson Eunic Epstein-Ortiz described the movement as a nonpartisan, peaceful effort focused on democracy and freedom. In response to questions about partisan activity at events, she said some gatherings circulating online were not affiliated with or officially organized by No Kings, while noting that people sometimes use the movement’s name as a rallying cry. Her statement did not address the Alexandria event specifically in the quoted response; the report said it was listed on the official website.
Later, at a No Kings event on H Street NW near the White House, protester Nadine Seiler rejected the nonpartisan description. Seiler, whom the report identified as a self-described “professional protester,” said people who support Trump were not present and called the demonstration partisan. She said participants were resisting policies she characterized as illegal and described the administration as fascist. Those were Seiler’s characterizations, not independently established findings in the report.
The article also cited written election-law guidance distributed by No Kings, which it said bars partisan slogans, campaign materials, candidate endorsements and coordination with political parties. It reported that Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin discussed the parties’ candidates during an Oct. 15 livestream, and that in an Oct. 9 webinar he advised activists to let audiences infer political conclusions rather than make explicit Democratic endorsements. Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg was quoted describing No Kings as a nonpartisan coalition intended to include people across the political spectrum.
The report noted a distinction between individual protester speech and the legal status of an organization: partisan statements by people attending an event do not by themselves establish that organizers violated election law. It also said tax-exempt charities face restrictions that differ from those applicable to political advocacy groups. The article did not report a legal finding that No Kings or its organizers violated election rules.
Fox News Digital separately described a network of about 300 organizations with combined annual revenues of $2.5 billion as being behind the protest network, naming MoveOn, the American Federation of Teachers and the ACLU among them. The source did not provide further details in this article about how those organizations participated in the specific Alexandria or Washington events.
