Small-town Wisconsin gears up for ‘No Kings’ rallies

More than 80 protests against the Trump administration are planned for Oct. 18 around the state

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In April, Scott Marrese-Wheeler and his neighbor, Sue Stenzel, faced a conundrum. The McFarland residents were eager to protest actions taken by President Donald Trump’s second administration, but Marrese-Wheeler’s sciatic nerve pain and Stenzel’s mobility limitations made attending downtown Madison’s crowded rallies difficult.

So they held their own protest. On a busy corner in McFarland, Marrese-Wheeler and Stenzel sat beside each other in lawn chairs holding homemade signs. They were the only protesters. But their demonstration caught the attention of like-minded McFarland residents, and neighbors began contacting Marrese-Wheeler on Facebook to ask him to plan more events.

Now, he’s helping organize the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest in McFarland. These anti-Trump demonstrations are being staged nationwide, with more than 80 planned in Wisconsin. In smaller cities and rural areas around Wisconsin, protests will occur in Monroe, New Glarus, Dodgeville and more.

According to the Pew Research Center, rural areas nationwide went 40 points for Trump over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024, while Harris won by more than 35 points in urban areas. Rural “No Kings” protests aim to show that opposition to the Trump administration isn’t limited to large cities like Madison or Milwaukee, where liberal-aligned protests are expected.

It contradicts the narrative that it’s just “all these liberal cities” outraged over Trump’s policy choices, says Linda Kessel, co-chair of Indivisible Dane County.

“Some of [the organizers] have been calling it the rural resistance, which I think is a great idea,” she says.

Marrese-Wheeler, a pastor at Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, is concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism and the influence of the evangelical right on President Trump and congressional lawmakers. He says he’s also motivated to protest the federal funding cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“As a faith leader, this is about my calling,” says Marrese-Wheeler. “I have to protect the vulnerable in my community.”

Marrese-Wheeler has successfully built turnout at his McFarland rallies. He told McFarland’s interim police chief that he expected 35 people to show up for a June 14 “No Kings” protest; about 500 turned out, he says.

“Showing up in rural, small-town villages shows that we have a purpose,” says Marrese-Wheeler. “There is strength in people staying focused in their own communities.”

Some of the progressive organizers in rural communities are affiliated with Indivisible, a nationwide network of activists who’ve helped plan “No Kings” protests around the country. Indivisible Madison East and Indivisible Dane County have a hand in organizing Madison’s downtown protest, but anyone can start a “No Kings” protest in their community regardless of their relationship to Indivisible, says Kessel.

Organizers may apply to hold a protest through No Kings’ website, and once approved, the protest will be listed on the group’s website. No Kings sends organizers talking points, safety trainings, idea toolkits and more, Kessel says: “They do provide some good support for people who are especially new to this.”

Cathie Kwasneski, a 75-year-old Navy veteran who lives in Monroe, a city of 10,000 residents near the Illinois border, began protesting after Trump was first elected in 2016. She started organizing “in the last year or so,” after becoming a familiar face among local activists and is now helping plan the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest in Monroe.

In her view, the second Trump administration has been worse than the first.

“I served my country for three years, and I didn't serve it to see it be threatened by authoritarian rule,” Kwasneski says. She says that Trump has consolidated power and is “trying to control the military. It seems like we're looking back in history into the 1930s.”

Barbara Hill is a 78-year-old retired social worker who’s helping to organize the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protest in Sun Prairie with four other women. She says her partner organizers are “ordinary people” with children and other responsibilities who are “learning as they go.”

“I cannot overstate the effort the other organizers have put in despite them being mothers and having outside jobs,” says Hill.

Marrese-Wheeler recently saw someone on Facebook say they were going to the downtown Madison protest in October, rather than the Cambridge rally, because they felt Madison’s protest would be “historic.”

Says Marrese-Wheeler: “All I wanted to reply was, 'The fact that Cambridge, Wisconsin, is having a protest is historic in and of itself.’”