DAVENPORT, IOWA (October 17, 2025) — Building on the success of the original No Kings Rally on June 14, 2025, thousands are expected to gather and march at Vander Veer Botanical Park on Saturday, October 18, 11AM, to give voice to grave concerns about the erosion of democracy and human rights under the Trump administration.
With nearly 3,000 scheduled events nationally and internationally, No Kings 2 is expected to be the largest political mobilization in modern American history. Those attending are encouraged to wear the color yellow to signify solidarity and peaceful opposition to authoritarian governments at home and abroad.
“Ours is a movement for people who are determined to turn fear, anger, and grief into action,” says Indivisible QC founder Victoria Masters. “We’re here to hold each other up, protect each other, and fight for our values.”
Since returning to office, President Trump and the GOP have presided over an assault on federal workers, veterans’ benefits, freedom of speech, gay and trans rights, the environment, refugee and immigrant rights, and the Constitution itself. According to a local librarian, the GOP is “trying to ban books in our libraries and schools, and they’re clamping down on speech of any sort that criticizes the President’s agenda.”
Employees of federal agencies like the Rock Island Arsenal have been subject to tests and declarations that function as “loyalty oaths” to the current administration. “This is a kind of repression we haven’t seen for nearly a hundred years in this country,” said one of these employees.
The passage of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminates subsidies for Medicaid and delivers enormous tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. Republican politicians in Iowa like Governor Kim Reynolds, Senators Joni Ernst, Charles “Chuck” Grassley, and Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks have actively enabled this destructive and self-serving agenda.
Countless members of the Quad Cities community have been impacted negatively by the GOP agenda. As working folks struggle with inflation and layoffs, “foreclosure actions are being taken more aggressively against credit card debt, car loans, and mortgages,” says a Davenport-based information technology specialist. Local lay-offs began during the initial cuts back in February by DOGE, and they have only worsened during the current government shutdown.
The threat of draconian immigration enforcement by masked, unidentified federal agents, and other anti-immigration measures have also placed a chill on our community. Attendance at popular Fall events, restaurants, schools, and church services is down, and international visitors and students feel uncertain and unwelcome. “Well, I finally managed to get a visa to study here,” said one student in Illinois, “but how do I know they’re not going to deport me?”
No Kings 2 organizers hope the march sends a powerful message of unity and resistance in the face of the unlawful actions of the current government.
The march will begin at the stone fountain at the south entrance of Vander Veer and will proceed around the perimeter of the park. Chants, songs, skits, and signs will provide the vehicle for protest and for voicing alternative visions of justice and democracy.
Organization Overview:
Indivisible QC is an Illinois/Iowa community organization devoted to energetically challenging the Trump regime’s anti-democratic and unconstitutional actions and building alternative democratic futures. We are a grassroots movement of ordinary citizens exercising our First Amendment rights, resolutely committed to peaceful, nonviolent protest and community building. Founded on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025 in East Moline, Indivisible QC is a local chapter of the national Indivisible organization. Partnering with other justice-oriented local organizations, we sponsored the April 5 “Hands Off” Rally in Davenport, Iowa, the June 14 No Kings Rally at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island, Illinois, and the July 17 “Good Trouble Lives On” showing of the documentary about John Lewis at the TMBC Lincoln Center, Davenport, Iowa.
National Organization: indivisible.org
Local Organization: indivisibleqc.org
