Laurel Residents Join Nationwide No Kings March, Sen. Van Hollen to Speak

Sen. Chris Van Hollen took the microphone outside the Laurel Branch Library at 10 a.m. on March 28 as the culminating moment of a demonstration organized by Laurel Resist, Prince George's County's entry in a nationwide No Kings day of action that, according to coalition organizers, drew more than 8 million participants at over 3,300 events across all 50 states. The coalition called it the largest single-day demonstration in American history.

The crowd had been building since 9 a.m. Laurel Resist directed participants first to the amphitheater at Emancipation Community Park, 497 8th St., for a sign-making session and a costume showcase before the group moved to the library's surrounding sidewalks for the midmorning rally. The combination of handmade signs, visible costumes, and an incumbent U.S. senator on the program reflected an organizing strategy aimed at broad civic visibility, not a closed-door activist meeting.

From the Laurel stage, Van Hollen addressed the fear-and-silence argument that anchors the No Kings movement's messaging. "Donald Trump would love nothing more than for us to be scared, be afraid, and be silent while he wrecks our democracy," he told the crowd. "But as millions of Americans are showing today, we will not be scared, we will not go away, and we will say loudly: No Kings."

Laurel was one of dozens of demonstration sites spread across Maryland on March 28. In Hagerstown, near a proposed ICE detention facility, an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 people gathered. In Columbia, 4,000 demonstrators turned out with Rep. Sarah Elfreth on the program. Baltimore drew between 1,000 and 1,500 marchers downtown. The issues animating Prince George's crowds tracked closely with those statewide: immigration enforcement operations, civil liberties concerns, and what organizers described as threats to democratic norms at the federal level.

Saturday's mobilization was the third round of national No Kings protests, following earlier events in June and October 2025. The coalition is coordinated by Indivisible and the 50501 coalition, with organizational backing from the AFL-CIO and allied groups. Organizers noted that nearly half of the 3,300-plus events took place in Republican-leaning communities; Texas, Florida, and Ohio each hosted more than 100 separate demonstrations.