The fourth round of No Kings protests brought several hundred people to the New Haven Green on Saturday, a sharp contrast to the last heavily-attended demonstration in April.
It was one of more than 40 No Kings protests across Connecticut this weekend. Similar events took place around the country.
The rallies are advertised as nonpartisan, but they’re almost exclusively attended by people who oppose the Trump administration. Several Democrats on the ballot in the upcoming elections attended the rallies across the state.
Multiple people said they were surprised by the smaller turnout.
Mary Cannata, an East Haven resident, said it’s important to keep showing up.
“To let those all over, I mean, just the common voter know that there's other people supporting you and how you feel about things, and let the government know that we're not going away,” Cannata said.
This set of protests was centered around getting out the vote ahead of Election Day. Signs had messages such as “VOTE EARLY” and “resist autocracy, vote in the midterms.”
Tables with information about how to vote early were lined up along the green, and volunteers panned out to hand out flyers about the upcoming election.
Early voting begins in Connecticut on Monday October 19.
Despite the smaller group, participants still sang protest songs and led chants. The crowd skewed older, and white, as it has tended to do at these protests.
David French is a Navy veteran, who said he has been to multiple countries led by dictators, and believes that’s what President Donald Trump wants to be. He said he has voted Republican for 40 years, but not anymore.
“This is a very important moment in our nation's history,” French said. “We've got to take our democracy back.”
