Iowa Showed Up. So Did the Rest of the World.

I had a conflict yesterday. I could not be at the Iowa State Capitol at noon with the thousands of Iowans who showed up for the No Kings protests across the state. I could not stand on the steps or hold a sign or add my voice to the crowd. I am Rebecca Schweitzer — writing here as I always do as Rebecca Nicole Schweitzer — and I want to say something to every Iowan who showed up yesterday: I am proud of you.

What Happened in Iowa Yesterday

Iowans showed up across the state — not just in Des Moines but in more than 55 communities from Onawa to Keokuk, from Sioux Center to Davenport. Small towns and cities. Farmers and teachers and federal workers and retirees and parents pushing strollers. People who had never been to a protest before standing next to people who have been showing up for decades.

The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines drew thousands. The Pappajohn Sculpture Park drew more. Across Iowa communities gathered in courthouse squares, city parks, and street corners — in places where the national media will never send a camera crew but where the presence of neighbors standing together means everything.

This was the third major No Kings day of action. Iowa's participation has grown every single time. Thirty-three communities in June 2025. Forty in October 2025. More than fifty-five yesterday. That is not a protest movement fading. That is a protest movement growing.

What Was Happening Beyond Iowa

Iowa was not alone yesterday. Not even close.

Across the United States more than 3,000 demonstrations took place in cities and towns in all fifty states. Organizers described March 28 as potentially the largest single day of nonviolent protest in American history. Millions of Americans stepped outside in red states and blue states, in rural counties and major cities, in places where showing up takes real courage because the people around you do not agree with you.

The No Kings movement has spread beyond American borders. People around the world who are watching what is happening to American democracy showed up in solidarity — in London, in Paris, in cities across Canada and Australia and Europe. The message was the same everywhere: power belongs to the people. Not to wannabe kings. Not to billionaire allies. Not to anyone who believes they are above accountability.

There is something profound about that. Iowa farmers and London office workers standing on the same side of the same argument on the same day. That does not happen unless something genuinely important is at stake.

What the No Kings Movement Is Really About

I have heard people dismiss these protests as partisan. I want to push back on that.

The principles at the center of the No Kings movement — that no person is above the law, that executive power has limits, that the rights of ordinary people matter more than the ambitions of the powerful — are not Democratic principles or Republican principles. They are American principles. They are the principles that the founders built this country around precisely because they had just lived under a king and did not want to do it again.

When federal workers lose their paychecks because of political decisions made without regard for their lives and families — that is an Iowa issue. When Iowans are sent to fight in a war that is difficult to justify and harder to explain — that is an Iowa issue. When the rights and freedoms that generations of Americans fought and died to protect are treated as negotiable — that is an Iowa issue.

That is what people were standing up for yesterday. In Des Moines and in Keokuk and in London and in Sydney. The same thing.

What Comes Next

A protest is not an endpoint. It is a declaration of intent.

The Iowans who stood at the Capitol yesterday and the Iowans who gathered in fifty-four other communities across the state did something important. They showed up. They were counted. They made visible what might otherwise be invisible — that there are a lot of us, that we are paying attention, and that we are not going away.

But what happens next matters just as much as what happened yesterday.

It means staying engaged when the cameras are gone and the signs are put away. It means showing up to school board meetings and city council sessions and legislative town halls. It means supporting the independent journalists and news outlets that are covering what the corporate media is not. It means voting in 2026 when Iowa legislative seats are genuinely in play and the outcome of those races will shape what life looks like in this state for years to come.

The women and men who built the movements that changed this country did not go home after one march and consider their work done. They kept showing up. In small ways and large ones. In public and in private. Year after year until the world finally caught up with what they already knew was right.

Iowa has always had those people. Yesterday proved we still do.

I am sorry I could not be there. I am so proud of everyone who was.

Rebecca Schweitzer is a Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa writer and community voice. Rebecca Nicole Schweitzer covers Iowa politics, healthcare, public accountability, and civic life. Her work has appeared in the Des Moines Register and The Gazette. Read more at iowaraisedrebeccaschweitzerunfiltered.com.