Jonathan Perry, a Poca resident, says he hasn’t been the kind of guy to go to political rallies. He recalled going to one roughly 15 years ago in Washington, D.C., where the main draws were comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. It was fun, not frenetic.
Yet there was Perry on Saturday at the state Capitol in Charleston, out at a “Hands Off” rally to protest a recent flurry of federal actions with hundreds of others. The crowd chanted, and cars drove by honking. Perry was in the back, holding a sign that read “Even the Introverts are Here.”
“I think a lot of people who may not have been political in the past are feeling pushed to get that way, and you’re bringing people out of the woodwork when you see people going on around the country, around the world, and the horrible leadership that’s being displayed by those at the very top.”
The rowdy gathering on Saturday was one of more than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations planned by more than 150 groups at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.
By vote margin, West Virginia has the second-most Trump supporting state in the nation.
In 2016, Trump got 68.5 percent of the general election vote in West Virginia, to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 26.4 percent. In 2020, Trump got 68.6 percent of West Virginia’s general election vote to Joe Biden’s 29.7 percent. And in 2024, Trump’s 70% of the vote handily beat Kamala Harris’s 28.1% in West Virginia.
Still, West Virginia rallies on Saturday were spread across places like Lewisburg, Fayetteville, Huntington, Clarksburg, Fairmont, Morgantown, Wheeling and Charles Town.
MORE: Hundreds protest federal job cuts in downtown Morgantown.
Outside the state Capitol in Charleston, the crowd sprawled across the front staircase, closing in around the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
This “Hands Off” rally blended with an already-planned “Bad Idea Factory” rally meant to spotlight the end of a legislative session marked by Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s “woke virus” agenda.
“I’m reminded of the words of the great Thomas Paine. He said these are the times that try the hearts of men,” one of the speakers, Rev. Matthew Watts, told the crowd near the beginning of the rally.
“Sin, like tyranny, is not easy to overcome. But the harder the struggle the sweeter the victory, and we’re going to get the victory,”
Around the back edge, people like Perry said they had not typically been drawn to political events — but the heightened activity of the first weeks of the second Trump presidency drew them out.
Although aggressive Trump-backed tariffs roiled the global economy this week, most people at the outer rim of the crowd described worries about democratic ideals and rule of law.
Perry took a long pause and said he is worried about the current presidential administration disregarding “individual rights guaranteed to us by the constitution for no true reason other than just to do it. You see the stories of the simple due process being taken over or in some cases completely ignored for people.
“Just the overall anarchy of the situation. Rules don’t matter any more. Rules don’t matter. It’s just whatever the guy at the top says.”
Cyndi Querrey traveled from Princeton and held a sign to say hands off federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. She said this is the first year she has actively protested political events. “I’m 65 years old, and I started a few weeks ago,” she said.
“This Trump and Musk are just trying to take over the country. They’re not getting the input from the people. Sure, he was elected, but I don’t think the people that elected him realized what he was really going to do. He kept saying it and we believed him, but they did not,” she said.
Querrey said she is retired and on Medicare. She is worried about the potential for cuts to the federal programs, despite Trump administration assurances that they will not be touched.
“I do not believe it. He promises things, but he promises (stuff) all the time, and we see where that’s taken us,” Querrey said.
Alongside her was a man who identified himself as Frank from Princeton, not wanting to identify his last name over concerns about the current political climate. Frank said he attended the event because of concerns about democratic values but not for partisan reasons.
“I don’t see this as a partisan event. I’m not partisan; I’m an independent voter. I vote for the candidates that I believe in,” he said.
“So what everyone should realize is that regardless of what party you identify with it’s important to stand back and say ‘You know what, what’s happening right now is not right. It’s a threat to our Constitution and our government,’ and that should bother everyone regardless of what your party is.”
Sisters Amanda Moore of Charleston and Allison Buskirk of Parkersburg said they were drawn to the Capitol event by the current national political climate. Buskirk said she was the motivator to draw the rest of her family out to the rally.
“I’m concerned about a lot of things, but in particular the attacks on our First Amendment rights. We should have the right — we do have the right — to protest even if the president doesn’t agree with what we have to say. We have the right,” Buskirk said.
“I’m concerned about a lot of things, but that in particular. Obviously, the racism. The list goes on.”
The recent imposition of global tariffs that kicked off a trade war and sent the stock market plummeting was another on her list.
“I think that a lot of people don’t understand what tariffs mean. It ultimately means that the money being taken in is being taken from us consumers. Yes, the company pays to have their good imported, but then they raise the price, which falls on the consumer. So it is a tax on the consumers,” Buskirk said.
And I feel like if we just outright say, ‘Hey tariffs are taxes,’ maybe some of these people will pay attention.”
Moore, her sister, held a sign that said “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
Moore said she attended because “people are kind of worshipping a king instead of living in a democracy with a president. It seems as though we’re breaking rules of the Constitution that shouldn’t be touched and the fact that people are kind of bowing down and believing everything he says.”
Trump is still early in his second term as president. Moore said she would have been willing to attend a similar rally in the first term, but sized up the most recent range of federal actions as far more aggressive than the first term.
“I wouldn’t have been opposed to coming to something like this eight years ago,” she said, “but it wasn’t as necessary then as it is now.”