No Kings Protests Spread Across Frisco, Plano, Allen, McKinney This Weekend

Jenny Colombo stood at a Plano traffic light last October holding a rainbow-trimmed sign that read "The Emperor Has No Clothes," a reference to the Hans Christian Andersen tale about an emperor whose subjects were too afraid to tell him the truth. "I feel President Trump is the epitome of that character," Colombo said. This Saturday, March 28, she and residents from across Collin County will have another chance to make that statement publicly, as No Kings demonstrations are scheduled once again in Frisco, Plano, Allen, McKinney and beyond.

The March 28 protests are a planned coordination of peaceful demonstrations, part of a series of actions driven in large part by ICE operations and the killings of Renée Good, Keith Porter, and Alex Pretti by immigration agents. The day is framed as a coordinated demonstration against President Trump's immigration policies, the ongoing war with Iran, and what organizers call growing authoritarianism in his second term. The Dallas City Hall rally is set for noon to 3 p.m. at 1500 Marilla St., one of more than 25 planned across North Texas.

Organizers with the Collin County Democratic Party, led by chair Jeremy Sutka, have built a local infrastructure for exactly this kind of mobilization. The party organized the October 18, 2025, local demonstrations for the No Kings rally, a nationwide protest against President Donald Trump's agenda. That day drew a striking turnout in a county not accustomed to it. Frisco, Plano and McKinney all hosted protests, and the turnout at all three registered in the thousands. Protesters ranging from age 8 to senior citizens waved homemade signs along Preston Road in Plano, where drivers honked and waved in support as they drove by. About twenty minutes northwest from Plano, families in Frisco brought their kids and dogs to the protest. The group lined a busy street outside a strip mall with shops and drive-throughs.

Protesters in McKinney were packed along the North Central Expressway, their signs and clothes damp from the rain. A protester wearing a Scottish kilt walked up and down the sidewalk playing bagpipes for the crowd, while others wore inflatable animal suits, including a unicorn, a purple dinosaur and a baby.

The demonstrations have not gone unnoticed in a county where the political establishment runs deep. Frisco and Plano are in Collin County, one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation according to the U.S. Census. The county is known for being a Republican stronghold and the home base of conservative Attorney General Ken Paxton. It is also home to Rep. Mihaela Plesa from Plano, the first Democratic state representative elected to the Texas statehouse from Collin County in 30 years. Paxton and his wife, State Sen. Angela Paxton, who has filed to divorce her husband, live in McKinney.

Republicans swept the vote in Collin County in the last election, with President Trump winning about 55% of the vote, 4% more than he won in 2020. Yet the resistance that turned out in October surprised even some of its own participants. Caroline Hong, born and raised in McKinney, said she didn't expect her hometown to show up. "I'm just impressed McKinney's even having a No Kings protest," Hong said.

A Plano resident organizing at the intersection of State Highway 380 and U.S. 75 echoed the sense of a county in flux. "Collin County feels more purple than it ever has," said Martino, a political independent, according to The Dallas Morning News. Allen residents Jacob Kennedy, a 27-year-old software programmer, and Jim Berry were among the Collin County participants who drove into McKinney to join the demonstrations, with Kennedy hoisting a volleyball net displaying the words "END ICE TERROR" in large orange letters. Protesters chanted "Power to the people, no one is illegal" and "No Kings, No Crowns, No Thrones" as they lined State Highway 380.

Jenny Colombo's rainbow-trimmed sign at the Plano traffic light referenced the children's story where people were too afraid to tell an emperor his clothing was invisible. Colombo, who has lived in Plano for 35 years, said she noticed a political shift in the city over the last decade as more people moved there. "It's such a diverse population here now," she said.

The March 28 nationwide protests already have 3,000 community events planned in all 50 states and every U.S. congressional district, surpassing the October event, which drew seven million people, by several hundred locations. In October, officers reported crowds of about 3,000 in downtown Dallas and larger turnouts in suburban Collin County cities such as Frisco and Plano. Organizers hope Saturday's event will draw even more, citing growing frustration over federal policies.

At the Plano protest in October, Elise Saunders said the turnout showed that people across the political spectrum were concerned about the direction the country is going. "I think that what this says is even conservatives can recognize that we should not have a dictator," Saunders said. "We should not have a king." With midterm elections a year away, voters in historically conservative suburban areas like Collin County could be the deciding factor for Texas politics.