Small towns in Montana rally for ‘No Kings’

HAMILTON — DILLON — POLEBRIDGE — Kent Kernahan, of Corvallis, said he’s a Methodist minister’s child, and he demonstrated Saturday at the No Kings Indivisible Bitterroot rally after asking himself what his father would have done.

Kernahan carried a sign that said, “Lord, Please Forgive Trump,” along with an image of the Gadsden “Don’t Tread On Me” image.

Among more than 700 people who lined several blocks of U.S. Highway 93 in downtown Hamilton, Kernahan said the symbol represents opposition to the king of England stepping on the colonies, but it’s misunderstood by some who claim it.

“I don’t think it means what they think it means,” Kernahan said. 

No Kings Indivisible Bitterroot, part of a national No Kings rally and among a couple of dozen planned demonstrations in Montana, took place in Hamilton, a smaller community of roughly 5,000 in the Bitterroot Valley.

Montana supported GOP President Donald Trump with 58% of the vote in 2024, but Ravalli County, a Republican stronghold in the red Bitterroot, backed him with 69%.

Nonetheless, Montanans turned out in traditionally red communities, such as Dillon, with a population of roughly 4,000, and they gathered in tiny outposts such as Polebridge, on the edge of Glacier National Park, which almost saw more demonstrators than full-time residents.

Most of the people who turned out to demonstrate appeared to be those who had already opposed Trump, the brash leader pushing the boundaries of presidential authority in his second term, and before the government shutdown, which has seen 700,000 federal workers furloughed.

But demonstrators said they rallied to show support for democracy, for the U.S. Constitution, for civil liberties, for federal workers, for immigrants, for their own grandchildren, for health care, for the proper use of military troops, and for science and research.

Cherie Garofalo, a local organizer of Indivisible, said the aim of the gathering was to protect liberties in the country for all, for her children, friends and neighbors.

“I really believe this is about freedom,” Garofalo said.

Debo Powers, a Democratic state Representative who organized a rally near the northern entrance of Glacier National Park, said it was the duty of Americans to take to their local streets and make their voices heard.   

“We have got to resist. It’s the patriotic thing to do,” Powers said.

Bitterrooters rally for freedom, democracy 

Stephen Goheen, of Corvallis, held up a sign that read, “Scientists Save Lives,” not far from a National Institutes of Health biomedical research facility in Hamilton, the Rocky Mountain Laboratories.

“If we don’t fund our scientists, we won’t be ready for the next diseases,” Goheen said.

For example, he said, the mRNA vaccine was based on research that had taken place over many years, and it proved valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The work that scientists do sometimes doesn’t show its value until years down the line,” Goheen said.

The Rocky Mountain Laboratories has employed roughly 500 people in recent years, according to KFF.

The lab, controversial in the Bitterroot, will run on a skeleton crew during the shutdown after roughly a dozen workers lost their jobs in February and other employees opted for early retirements, according to Lee Enterprises.

Not everyone at Saturday’s events was opposed to Trump, though, and Betty Belshe, of Hamilton, said she’s actually opposed to the lab, which studies infectious diseases and is designated a BSL-4 facility, a maximum containment laboratory.

She said she fears people in the Bitterroot might be exposed to biochemical hazards from the lab.

“If it gets out in our air, it’s going to harm us,” Belshe said.

Saturday, Belshe demonstrated to show support for Trump and his bold actions, including cutting government.

“We’ve got way too many government employees,” Belshe said. 

Belshe and her husband, Casey Leedy, both of Hamilton, stood next to a flag that read, “Vote Republican,” but they appeared to be in the minority along the highway.

Brooke Hillyer, wearing a Smokey Bear top, said she dressed to show her support for national parks and the U.S. Forest Service, and the bear is the best representative for that message.

National parks have remained open during the shutdown, and some conservation advocates worry the public resources will be damaged without proper staffing.

“I believe that Trump is ruining our country, what we stand for,” Hillyer said.

Susan Crawford, of Corvallis, said she doesn’t believe she’s being represented by Montana’s federal delegation, politicians who have ceded their power to the president.

“They’re giving up duties that we voted them in to do,” Crawford said.

She held a sign that read, “The Only White House Thrones ‘R’ Porcelain.”

“We are experiencing someone in the White House who is acting omnipotent, and we’re letting him,” Crawford said. “He does not deserve a throne, and we don’t want him on a throne, except this one.”

Although the theme of the rally was No Kings, Dean Knudsen, of Hamilton, said he had a different idea about a king.

In Montana, 55% of people are Christian, and Knudsen stood on one corner of the highway with a compilation of signs that read, “Jesus is King,” and “Jesus, Our Only Hope.”

“There is a king, and his name is Jesus,” Knudsen said.

On the opposite corner, Megan Kelly, in a puffy chicken costume just for “sh**s and giggles,” held a sign that read, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …”

She said closing down the government meant shutting people out of the things they need, such as education and health care, the opposite of helping those who are tired and poor. 

“I am letting the government know that the American people are not to be messed with,” Kelly said. 

Ron Osborn, a veteran of the Korean War, held up a sign that said, “The Military Defends Freedom. Don’t Use It To Crush It.”

Osborn, almost 93, said he believes the Trump administration’s approach to the military is “a disgrace.” Montana has a high number of military veterans, roughly 9% of the population. 

He said Pete Hegseth, head of the Department of Defense, or Department of War as the Trump administration has attempted to rebrand it, is “fully unqualified,” and the former Fox News television personality has no business leading the military or lecturing admirals.

Osborn and his wife, Nancy Osburn, took to the streets to show their patriotism.

“We’re proud American citizens, loyal to the flag and the Constitution,” Ron Osborn said.

Alla Brooks said she’s a child of immigrants, “an anchor baby,” and she held a sign with a picture of the Statue of Liberty that read, “I’m with her.”

“She was at the head of our harbor,” Brooks said.

She said her parents grew up in repressive Poland, and they drummed into their children the freedoms of America and the First Amendment.

Doug Hatchimonji’s parents, both Japanese, were interned in camps in the U.S. during World War II, and he said it’s important to protect people’s rights to speak, protest and assemble.

“It’s sad and disappointing that an old story continues to be repeated again and again,” said Hatchimonji, of Hamilton, and spouse of Garofalo. “It’s the same story, blaming people of color for problems that they didn’t create.”

One Trump priority is deporting people who are in the country illegally, but law enforcement authorities under his administration have detained many people who have the right to be in the United States, including Americans and elected officials.

Kandice Gren, in a red gnome dress and pointy hat, said she was concerned about the new reduction in the distribution of power among the three branches of government.

Her sign read, “Gnomes say NO KINGS!”

Montanans are practical people, and Gren explained her getup.

“It’s the only costume I own,” Gren said.

Frustrated participants convene for Dillon’s largest demonstration

About 200 people showed up to line North Montana Street through Dillon, and they held signs, played guitars and talked with one another. At least one participant told the Daily Montanan it appeared to be the biggest the town has seen.

For Emilee Gates, 26, who helps people navigate the social safety net as part of her job, coming to the event in Dillon was in part born out of frustration. One action the Trump administration has taken is to severely cut the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, calling it “unnecessary.”

What that means for one person Gates has worked with is that instead of $1,500 to pay for energy, they now have $150.

“That’s one propane fill up,” Gates said, saying that the man was living in a camper — which is legal in Montana she added.

Some people attended the rally from Ennis and Twin Bridges, organizers said, even carpooling to get there.

Polebridge protest exceeds local population

More than 60 people gathered to take part in a No Kings Indivisible rally in the hamlet of Polebridge, in the borderlands of Glacier National Park, locally organized by Rep. Powers.

The area surrounding Polebridge is colloquially known as the North Fork, and boasts around 100 year-round residents, including Powers. 

“Almost all of the people here are North Forkers, so they’re my constituents,” Powers told the Daily Montanan. “There were a few tourists who were coming to Glacier Park, saw us, and they joined us. That was fun, but mostly it’s people who are my neighbors.”

An intersection of dirt roads is home to the iconic red Polebridge Mercantile — and its equally iconic huckleberry bear claws — standing sentinel near the northernmost entrance to Glacier.

Armed with signs, flags, and costumes, the ralliers circled up in the dirt intersection, occasionally parting ways to let cars headed into the national park squeeze through, along with one disgruntled carload of tourists who grumbled about not needing to be confronted with politics as they walked into the Mercantile to get coffee and pastries. 

Powers, who served in her first Legislative session as an elected official this year, greeted most people by name and at noon pulled out her megaphone. 

“I swore a sacred oath to protect the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of Montana,” she said. “The problem we have today is we have some people who are ignoring their own sacred oaths of office.”

Focusing on the theme of the nationwide rallies — expected to be among the highest participation protest events in history — Powers reminded those gathered that 250 years ago, residents of what would become the United States made a decision to not have a king. 

“We made that decision already, and we did not unmake it,” she said, to responding cheers of “no kings!” 

Not standing up and making their voices heard could be detrimental to residents of Montana, she continued. 

“If we are silent, we could lose it all. We could lose our public lands. We could lose our public education. We could lose our social security and medicare. We could lose our sacred right to vote in free and fair elections,” Powers said. 

Powers represents House District 3, which encompasses the North Fork border of Glacier Park, as well as half of Whitefish. She told the Daily Montanan she felt it was her duty to host a No Kings rally for her community, especially since the next closest one, in Kalispell, is a nearly two-hour drive away. 

“I just asked for seven people to show up so we would have enough to spell out “N-O K-I-N-G-S,” she said. “It’s important to gather close to home, and it’s important to see people in small villages, in red states, not just in big blue cities. This group would get swallowed up there, but here, we stand out.”