List: 'No Kings: Vote Early' rallies happening in October around the Bay Area
'No Kings' Day demonstrations draw millions across Bay Area, US
In the Bay Area, one of the first events of the day took place in Benicia, where a crowd of about 50 people at 9 a.m. grew to more than 150 within half an hour.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Millions of protestors, three times since January 2025, have taken to the streets to speak out against the Trump Administration’s policies and declare that the United States has "No Kings."
The organizers of those protests recently announced a fourth event, scheduled for Oct. 17. The event is intended to encourage Americans to vote early.
‘No Kings’ protests across U.S. ahead of midterm elections
"Our elections are under attack," the No Kings website states. "Efforts to undermine trust in our elections and to make it harder for people to be heard are happening across our country right now. Our democracy depends on every eligible voter having the freedom to participate without intimidation, interference, or barriers."
Bay Area ‘No Kings’ protests on Oct. 17
Dozens of Bay Area protests are planned for Saturday, Oct. 17 from Alameda to Union City:
- Alameda: 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Alameda City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue
- Berkeley: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Berkeley Pedestrian Overpass at University Avenue
- Brentwood: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 pm, 5151 Heidorn Ranch Road
- Corte Madera: 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 am, Corte Madera Town Park, 498 Tamalpais Drive
- El Sobrante: 11:00 p.m. - 1:00 pm, 4073 San Pablo Dam Rd, the corner of San Pablo Dam Road and Appian Way
- Fairfax: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm, Fairfax Library, 2097 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
- Fremont: 11:30 am-1:30 pm, Walnut Avenue and Paseo Padre Parkway
- Lafayette: 4:00p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Mt Diable Boulevard and Moraga Road
- Larkspur: 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Larkspur Ferry Terminal Pedestrian Bridge, 101 East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
- Livermore: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Portola Park, North Livermore Avenue and Portola Avenue
- Mill Valley: 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto
- Mountain View: 12:00 - 2:00 p.m., 790 West El Camino Real
- Novato: 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Rowland Overpass, 101 Rowland Boulevard
- Oakland: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Lake Park Avenue and Lakeshore Avenue
- Oakland: 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 51st Street and Broadway
- Oakland: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., College Avenue and Keith Avenue
- Oakley: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Main Street and Vintage Parkway
- Palo Alto: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., 355 Stanford Shopping Center
- Pittsburg: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Railroad Avenue
- Redwood City: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Red Morton Park, near Valota Road entrance, 1120 Roosevelt Avenue
- San Anselmo: 1:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., San Anselmo 'Hub', Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue
- San Francisco: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Sunset Dunes, 1349 Upper Great Highway, at Judah Street
- San Francisco: 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., 18th and Dolores Street
- San Jose: 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Winchester Shopping Center, 3137 Stevens Creek Boulevard
- San Jose: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., St. James Park at the President McKinley Monument, 180 N. First Street
- San Pablo: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., 1300 Amador Street, across from Riverside School
- San Rafael: 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Albert J. Boro Community Center, 50 Canal Street
- Sausalito: 10:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m., Marin City Library, 164 Donahue Street
- Sunnyvale: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., 750 East El Camino Real
- Tara Hills: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Richmond Parkway I-80 overpass, Richmond Parkway & Blume Drive
- Union City: 10:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m., Kennedy Park Amphitheater, 1333 Decoto Road
No King! sign formed with bodies in San Francisco, captured by drone.
Trump's election integrity claims
What they're saying:
President Trump has made American election integrity a cornerstone of his second administration.
He maintains that the 2020 election was "stolen," despite numerous investigations determining there was no interference. He attempted to restrict mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections (an effort that was thwarted by a recent Supreme Court ruling), and his administration is pushing to make a comprehensive list of American citizens who are eligible to vote, which is to be shared with and used by state voting officials. Critics, including some who have filed lawsuits, argue such a list violates multiple federal laws, including the Privacy Act).
He has made the SAVE America Act a key piece of legislation, and made headlines when he announced he would not sign a bipartisan housing bill until the act had been passed in the Senate.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require voters to appear in person at an election office, rather than register online, by mail, or at the DMV.
Prospective voters would be required to present either: a Real ID that indicates U.S. citizenship (only issued by five states in the country), a valid U.S. passport or passport card, a military ID card paired with service records indicated place of birth in the U.S., or a valid government-issued photo ID paired with:
- A certified birth certificate
- A Record of Birth extract
- An adoption decree showing a U.S. place of birth
- A Consular Report of Birth Abroad
- A Naturalization Certificate or Certificate of Citizenship
- An American Indian Card with the classification "KIC"
If a voter’s name doesn’t match across those documents, they would be required to provide additional paperwork, such as a marriage certificate.
The new standards would not only apply to unregistered, would-be voters. Any time a voter needs to update their registration — whether because they moved, changed their name, or switched political parties — they would be required to re-register at an election office with qualifying documents.
Featured
Ahead of 'No Kings' protests, expert tips for staying safe at demonstrations
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to protest, but there are limits to how far a protest can go.
Background and perspectives
The other side:
Speaker Mike Johnson, in an interview with Fox News, decried previous No Kings protests as "hate America" rallies that would attract the "pro-Hamas supporters" and the "antifa types."
Johnson is not the only Republican voice to criticize the events, which have been overwhelmingly nonviolent.
Multiple Republicans have echoed Johnson’s sentiments. Democrats and progressives have said the rallies represent a "patriotic" fight for First Amendment rights.
Previous ‘No Kings’ protests
Timeline:
The first No Kings protest was scheduled on June 14, 2025, as a counter to a military parade organized by the White House to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Army, which coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday.
A second protest followed on Oct. 18, and was a response to Trump’s policies of sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sweeping through communities across the country, often while hiding their faces behind masks and refusing to show their badges.
Protesters also spoke out against the then-ongoing deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee National Guard troops are still deployed in Washington, D.C.
At the time, Trump justified the use of National Guard troops, who are not trained in domestic policing, as part of a broader effort to eliminate "violent crime," despite statistics showing violent crime in those cities has declined in recent years.
In contrast to reports that those protests would be infiltrated by "terrorists," "paid protesters" and agitators," the events were almost entirely peaceful.
Fox News reported five incidents and/or arrests stemming from the June rallies. Two of those incidents were alleged attacks against protesters, and two of the three people arrested at a Florida rally were counter-protesters. The most egregious incident of violence occurred when a man was shot and killed by a rally peacekeeper who was aiming for a different man pointing an AR-15-style rifle toward the crowd.
Multiple organizations have shared tips for how protesters can protect themselves from potential harm or prosecution.
A third protest, held on March 8 of this year, saw an estimated 8 million participants, across all 50 states and over a dozen countries, marking the largest number of protests in a single day in U.S. history.
'No Kings' Day demonstrations draw millions across Bay Area, US
In the Bay Area, one of the first events of the day took place in Benicia, where a crowd of about 50 people at 9 a.m. grew to more than 150 within half an hour.
Who organizes ‘No Kings’?
The backstory:
The "No Kings" protests are being organized by the 50501 Movement, a movement of Americans responding to the "plutocrats (ripping) apart their democratic institutions and civil liberties while undermining the rule of law," the organization’s website states.
The group’s name refers to their founding goal: to organize 50 protests held simultaneously in all 50 states in one day, Feb. 5 of last year. Several similar protests have been organized since then, including the "No Kings on Presidents’ Day" march on Feb. 17 2025, and the No Kings protests on June 14 and Oct. 18.
The No Kings protests are privately organized events, meaning there’s no central leadership. Each event is unique to its location and organizer(s).
The events are in partnership with dozens of organizations, including the ACLU, Indivisible and the Human Rights Campaign.
"[President Trump’s] administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting, and detaining people without warrants. Threatening to overtake elections. Gutting healthcare, environmental protections, and education when families need them most," the No Kings website states. "Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our school and in our communities. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies, as families struggle.
"The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings — and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption and cruelty."
The Source: Information for this story was gathered from the No Kings website, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the Bipartisan Policy Center, Fox News, CNN, the Washington Post, the Ocala StarBanner, and previous KTVU reporting.