'No Kings' Protesters Told Fox 'Vote Blue' at Official Events, Despite Organizers' Nonpartisan Rules
Fox News Digital spoke with demonstrators in Alexandria and outside the White House who called the Oct. 17 protests partisan. A spokesperson says partisan events are not officially organized by No Kings.
The national "No Kings" organizers told protesters to keep Saturday's demonstrations nonpartisan. Some of the people who showed up did not.
Fox News Digital reporter Asra Nomani visited two official "No Kings" events on Oct. 17. In Alexandria, Virginia, 26-year-old engineer Nayely Cruz Hernandez told her, "I'm saying vote blue, because why are we here? Who's in the House? Who's in the Senate? Who is the President? It's red, it's Republicans, and it's Trump." She said the goal was to win both chambers, and she held her dog up as a supporter of Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat. Nearby, another woman waved a sign reading "THE USA Needs a Big Beautiful BLUE WAVE." Fox also saw a "Refuse Fascism" sign saying "TRUMP MUST GO NOW!"
Later, outside the White House, Fox spoke with Nadine Seiler, a self-described "professional protester" whom Trump has mentioned. Asked whether the event was nonpartisan, she said, "No, no, the people who agree with Trump are not out here," and later, "this is as partisan as you can get."
Why it matters. The protests are funded by a network of nonprofits, and Fox says federal rules limit what those groups can do in elections. According to Fox, the national organizers at Indivisible gave written guidance banning "vote blue" calls, candidate endorsements and partisan campaign materials. Fox also points to comments from Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin. On an Oct. 15 livestream he said, "Our candidates are quite good all around the country. Their candidates are quite trash all over the country." In an Oct. 9 webinar, speaking about how activists could criticize Trump without naming Democrats, he said, "you've got to let people connect the dots on that one." Fox's earlier investigation counted about 300 groups with $2.5 billion in combined annual revenue behind the network, including MoveOn, the American Federation of Teachers and the ACLU.
The other side. No Kings national spokesperson Eunic Epstein-Ortiz told Fox the movement is "nonpartisan, peaceful" and that it is aware of "partisan events circulating online that are not affiliated with or officially organized by No Kings." Fox points out that the Alexandria event was listed on the organizers' own website.
An important limit, which Fox states itself: individual protesters voicing partisan views do not by themselves show that organizers broke election law, and tax-exempt charities face different rules than political groups. The report documents what people said on the street. It does not allege a legal violation.