Women's March 2020: Many signs, one message — Replace Trump

Jan. 18--Dozens of Elizabeth Warren supporters dressed in blue and white marched down San Fernando Street in San Jose. A group of "Women for Pete" Buttigieg joined a stream of thousands walking past a new Bernie Sanders campaign office in Downtown Oakland. And supporters carried signs for Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg and Andrew Yang as they rallied outside City Hall in San Francisco.

Still, as thousands of people took to the streets across the Bay Area on Saturday for the fourth-annual Women's March, joining thousands more at protests nationwide, an at-times-contentious Democratic primary did not appear to have fiercely divided attendees.

Instead, among crowds that were smaller than those in past years, many marchers seemed zeroed in on November -- when they hope to finally vote out of office the man whose inauguration sparked their protest movement four years ago.

"This one is a little bit more steering toward election," said Rina Kacker, who traveled from Mountain View to San Jose to march with fellow Warren supporters. "But it's centered on the same premise, which is that Trump needs to go."

Malia Cohen, the former president of the San Francisco board of supervisors who became the first black woman on the California Board of Equalization, told marchers, "It's 2020 ladies, and we've got some cleaning up to do."

"If you're angry, vote. If you're tired, vote. If you're hungry, if you're homeless, vote," Cohen added.

An estimated 12,000 people marched in the San Francisco demonstration, along with about 5,000 in Oakland and 7,500 in San Jose, according to organizers.

Lines of marchers stretched for blocks in each city.

A group of drummers and the Nasty Woman Marching Band led the protest in Oakland, where marchers chanted "Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide!" and "Not my president!" U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee later told the crowd that the protest movement proved itself in the 2018 midterm elections, which flipped the House of Representatives and sent record numbers of women, many of them women of color, to Congress.

"We saw the results of our power," Lee said to cheers.

In San Jose, marchers streamed into the City Hall rotunda, bundled up in thick scarves and carrying signs reading "Trump is a cyberbully" and "I'm with her" with a finger pointing to Mother Earth. A small throng of admirers surrounded San Jose resident Marty Muñoz, 58, whose hand-crafted sign bore President Trump's face and a large undulating tongue with "Lies" written on it.

As protesters crowded the corner of 4th and East Santa Clara Street, massive cheers erupted when a worker at a construction site across the street pumped his fist in the air in solidarity.

Several speakers in San Francisco, where a contingent of indigenous women walked at the front of the march, thanked the Bay Area's native Ohlone people for allowing them to have the march on their land.

In all, an estimated 180 Women's Marches took place in big cities and small towns across the country.

In Washington, D.C., several thousand people -- far fewer than the 100,000 who took part in last year's protest -- marched around the White House. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, joined thousands of men, women and children at the march in downtown Los Angeles.

While the crowds continued a trend of declining participation each year in the marches, experts and organizers say that doesn't mean the anti-Trump "resistance" is losing steam in this election year. Rather, they say, fewer people are coming to the march because many have found other ways to try to push the country in a more progressive direction, such as local activism or work with political campaigns.

"There have been so many issues out there that people are having to get behind," Stephanie Taymuree of Moraga said as she and her friend Marianne Landis waited for the Oakland march to begin Saturday morning. Both wore buttons reading "Any functioning adult 2020" and "Make lying wrong again."

"Hopefully, they are fatigued and resting up for the election," Landis said of the people who weren't marching Saturday. "They are saving their strength."

Like other marchers in Oakland, Landis and Taymuree had their preferred pick in the Democratic primary -- Joe Biden, both said, believing his moderate message would appeal to the broadest swath of voters -- but added that they would be happy to vote for any of the party's candidates. A sign in the crowd seemed to sum up the position of many: "Vote blue no matter who."

The past week of the Democratic primary has seen the fraught concept of "electability" come to the fore, with some voters wondering whether a female nominee can defeat Trump and others frustrated by what they view as that criticism's inherent sexism.

"I think it's a fair question," Democratic activist Kimberly Ellis said. "The fact of the matter is we live in a racist, homophobic, xenophobic society."

San Juan Bautista resident Cynthia Ponce, 68, said the question of whether a female candidate can win is not where voters should focus their energy.

"It's always going to be asked, hon," Ponce said. "People are always going to say women can't beat Trump. But look, people are going to vote for whoever is running against him."

Beyond the campaign, Women's Marches have become annual reminders for liberals nationwide that they are far from alone in their outrage at a time when it can feel like each day brings a fresh barrage of dispiriting headlines.

Annette Miller, a marcher from Oakland, said coming out to the demonstration "makes me feel a little bit better."

"I can just come out and say, 'Ahhhhh!'" Miller said.

Family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border and threats to reproductive rights have made for a frustrating year, Ashley Ochoa, 31, said at the San Jose protest.

"It's nice to see other people here, and they're angry, and we're all frustrated," Ochoa said, wiping away tears as she took part in the protest. "To have this cathartic release together, it's beautiful."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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