On a freezing February evening last year, around a dozen people gathered on an interstate overpass in Minneapolis and hoisted a sign in view of oncoming traffic.

The sign — letters screwed to long, thin pieces of lumber — read: “STOP THE COUP.”

A week later, the group gathered again, though they had doubled in number. The week after that, they doubled again.

Over a year later, around 40 neighbors and up to 100 on busy nights now squeeze onto the overpass Thursday evenings with a new message for the rush-hour traffic.

They call themselves Democracy Bridge Minneapolis, and have protested almost every week since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

And in the lead-up to the third nationwide No Kings protests tomorrow, Democracy Bridge catalyzed a wave of demonstrations like their own spanning the 1,568-mile length of Interstate 35.

From Duluth, Minn., to San Antonio, 47 different bridge protests cut through the midline of the country Thursday with the same message: “YES DEMOCRACY NO KINGS.”

Grassroots organizations 50501 Kansas City, Indivisible Twin Cities and The Visibility Brigade also took the lead on mobilizing this week.

Organizers said they hope their efforts inspired onlookers to participate in what’s projected to be the largest turnout for a single-day protest in United States history.

“We have to help us and we have to start by letting our neighbors know what the hell is going on and why they should care,” Sarah Linnes-Robinson, a founding member of the group, said. 

While millions of Americans will take to the streets in cities across the country, as many as 100,000 people could attend the No Kings Day flagship rally in Minnesota’s capital, St. Paul. 

The flagship rally will feature progressive leaders Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders, as well as legend Bruce Springsteen, who will headline with his “Streets of Minneapolis.” 

“ICE OUT OF MN:” The Twin Cities fight back

Past the stardom, the rallies across the Twin Cities may provide catharsis for residents whose lives over the past several months have been upended by Trump’s winter immigration enforcement operation.

Dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” Trump’s massive deployment of immigration officials in Minnesota resulted in mass unlawful detentions, repeated violent assaults against peaceful protesters, and ultimately, the killings of two U.S. citizens, who were both shot by federal officers. 

Democracy Bridge protesters channeled their outrage over Renee Good’s and Alex Pretti’s killings through their weekly messages.

“DEFUND ICE” and “ICE OUT OF MN” lit up the bridge on Jan. 29, 2026.

Similarly, “HANDS OFF ELECTIONS” appeared following Trump’s threat to “take over voting”  this February, as well as signs protesting the escalation of the Iran war.

Other messages, all of which can be viewed on the organization’s website archive, urged for the release of the Epstein files, opposed a war with Venezuela and admonished Trump’s proposed 2027 budget for its potential impact on Minnesotans’ healthcare.

Most messages are succinct and sometimes abbreviated so while organizers said they would like it, words like “authoritarianism” don’t make the cut.

Some have backgrounds in community organizing, while other bridge-goers are architects and retired researchers. Some come straight from pickleball practice and others from church. 

“All are welcome so you can have a Ukrainian flag, you can have a Palestinian flag, a right side up flag, an upside down flag I mean come as you are,” Rosemary Dolata, a Minneapolis resident and bridge protest organizer, said.

Mary Jane Levine has lived in Minneapolis since 2000 and works in a garden store. But before that, she was a federal law enforcement officer. It’s what brought her to the bridge.

“I’m horrified by what was done to the civil service and even more horrified to see what my former federal law enforcement officers are doing to our citizens,” Levine said.

Do protests work? What the data and the locals say

With thousands of other local protests planned across the U.S, this follows a trend of increasing decentralization within civic action.

That’s according to data from American University researcher Dana Fisher, who has been conducting surveys of widespread protests since the Women’s March in 2017. 

Fisher’s data shows that nationwide protests in recent years have been largely composed of white, highly educated, and primarily older women. While multiple factors are at play, Fisher noted that a lack of diversity is not always reflective of a lack of interest.

As pointed out by organizers as well, many people of color don’t feel safe showing up to a large crowd and making their presence known amid Trump’s deployment of federal agents. And for young people, some are just burned out.

“They’ve had a really hard go of being adults,” Fisher said. “And the country has been in precarious moments of democracy basically consistently.”

In addition to her vast demographic research, Fisher said she’s worried about the national focus on high turnout without a solid plan for what’s next after No Kings Day.

While excited about the potential record turnout this weekend, bridge regulars underscored how their smaller efforts have engendered meaningful local impact in Minneapolis.

Everyone who protests has their first one, and Linnes-Robinson said the project has been a way to meet the moment in a time when many in Minneapolis “are just ready to say yes.”

Fisher added that despite her doubts or larger organizational aims, these local actions remain important for “collective mourning” and fostering “collective identity formation.” 

Demonstrators came together overwhelmingly on the top two issues of “Trump” and “Immigration” at the last No Kings Day, according to Fisher’s data.

“While I’m critical of the way the organizers keep banging on the number, I also just want to recognize that they are very much doing other work to get people to build power and capacity in their communities,” Fisher said.

Sarah Strzok, another founding member of the group, described the organizing process as a true grassroots effort. Each Monday, members text in their Signal group to brainstorm and settle on a message for the signs. Neighbors then build the signs from their “letter library” with wooden sticks and sign holders. 

Because they are not permitted to fasten the signs to the bridge itself, participants get creative with pieces of bamboo and pool noodles to hold up the signs.

Apart from sign logistics, unforgiving Minnesota weather has been another consideration for bridge regulars. While some still made it outside in freezing temperatures, the group organized an indoor project in the coldest months where others could write letters and assemble whistle kits.

Once daylight savings hit, the group moved their demonstration an hour earlier and community members donated reflective tape to ensure signage visibility and safety.

Dolata lives in South Minneapolis and said protesting at the bridge has been a way to not just advocate for change but connect with the community she’s lived in for more than 25 years.

“It’s just been neighbors reaching out to neighbors,” Dolata said.

This “reaching out” has transcended the bridge demonstrations. This winter, Rebecca Shield told Democracy Docket that some in the group found out that families at local schools were facing food insecurity. 

It wasn’t long before the crew decided to chip in. What began as boxes of food for 20 families in need has surged to about 120, Shield said. And bridge friends are pitching in to cover rent for some of the families, too.

The solidarity and community-building that Fisher said No Kings protests have the potential to engender have manifested at the bridge – from mutual aid to merely flashing a smile to a fellow protester in the grocery store.

“It [the bridge] was just another thread that knit us all together,” Strzok said.