The bright blue map that emerged on election night in the US was unthinkable two years ago.
asserted
that → emerge → US
When Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, many Democratic voters curled up in bed and doomscrolled, fatigued and fearful about the direction of the country.
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voters → win → country
Any desire to fight back was dampened by the enormity of the loss.
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desire → fight → loss
But the mood gradually shifted over the following two years, culminating in a generational shift on election day: Democrats flipped five governors’ seats and took control of the House and Senate by wide margins.
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Democrats → shift → margins
Voters were angry about the rising cost of living, the war in Iran, masked immigration agents in their neighborhoods and datacenters rising in their backyards.
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Voters → rise → backyards
But anger alone didn’t boost turnout.
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anger → boost → turnout
That required years of building coalitions, developing local campaigns and expanding movement infrastructure that turned frustration into organized action – and, eventually, votes.
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that → require → action
Now, these same organizers are determining where to go next.
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organizers → determine → ?
To continue to build power, movements must diversify their tactics, make clear demands, put pressure on the newly elected and keep building community-based networks
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movements → continue → networks
, movement experts said.
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experts → say → ?
“Elections themselves don’t achieve what it is that people want,” said Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an African American studies professor at Princeton University and the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.
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Taylor → achieve → Liberation
“They set the table for the possibility of change.”
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They → set → change
Engaging beyond street protests
The national No Kings protests have been some of the most visible actions in the second Trump administration.
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protests → engage → administration
The coalition, made up of dozens of groups and partner organizations, emerged in the middle of 2025 as intentionally leaderless and decentralized, its marches designed to be a container for the variety of grievances that millions of people wanted to express, from anger over gas prices and federal workforce cuts to frustration over war.
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millions → make → war
The marches provided an entry point for people who were new to activism, and now, after the midterms, the coalition is regrouping.
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coalition → provide → midterms
“One thing is clear: the work of protecting our democracy doesn’t begin or end with this election,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, which helps power No Kings.
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which → protect → Kings
But drawing attention to injustice or sounding the alarm isn’t enough, said Jamila Raqib, executive director of the non-profit Albert Einstein Institution, which studies nonviolent action.
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which → draw → action
“People are more engaged than ever before,” said Raqib.
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Raqib → engage → ?
“They’re taking action in response to the crises we face, but they’re less often achieving concrete objectives.”
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they → take → objectives
Movements need to adapt tactics to keep up with authoritarian governments, she said.
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she → need → governments
Many governments have learned that brutal crackdowns on nonviolent action tend to backfire, so they rely on “smart repression” – selective arrests, legal harassment, surveillance, disinformation, funding restrictions and job losses – to wait movements out.
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they → learn → movements
Governments simply outlast demonstrators who eventually have to return to school and work.
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who → outlast → school
That’s why movements must map the “pillars of support” that any government depends on, including courts, businesses, media and religious institutions, Raqib said.
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Raqib → ’ → courts
They can then decide which of those pillars to win over, which to weaken and which to replace.
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They → decide → which
Activists should prepare to organize within workplaces, government agencies, businesses and congregations, where an opponent’s support actually lives, Raqib said.
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Raqib → prepare → workplaces
Mutual-aid networks, community defense groups and independent media can sustain a movement through a long fight, too.
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networks → sustain → fight
Preparing for smart repression also means treating digital security as a basic organizing skill, planning for the arrest of key leaders and training successors before a crackdown comes.
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crackdown → prepare → leaders
Several of those ideas showed up in Minnesota in January.
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Several → show → January
A general strike, sit-ins at corporate headquarters and pressure on employers to speak out weakened Trump’s Operation Metro Surge in ways a single march could not.
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march → speak → ways
After federal agents killed two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, tens of thousands of people marched in subzero cold under the banner “No Work, No School, No Shopping”.
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thousands → kill → banner
Trump ended the operation the following month.
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Trump → end → operation
The response rested on years of labor, faith and community organizing, said Doran Schrantz, a longtime Minnesota organizer who founded the Organizing Lab.
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who → rest → Lab
Thousands had trained as legal observers starting in January 2025 through immigrant rights groups like Unidos and the Immigrant Defense Network.
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Thousands → train → Unidos
Groups like Defend the 612 built an efficient rapid-response system to observe and document ICE agents, and the Ice Out Now coalition linked all groups on the ground, Schrantz said.
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Schrantz → defend → ground
To resist, “not everyone has to march in the streets”, Raqib said.
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Raqib → resist → streets
Setting clear demands
The fight over datacenters has united Americans across party lines, showing what is possible when resistance is local and personal and outlines clear demands.
“There is an authentic local response to these datacenters,” said Schrantz.
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Schrantz → set → datacenters
It was something that people felt they had agency over, she said: “It’s concrete: ‘I can stop that datacenter.’
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I → feel → datacenter
That clear target allowed groups that normally agree on little else to work together.
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that → allow → little
The coalitions included environmental groups, farmers, retirees, school parents and “Maga moms”, Schrantz said.
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Schrantz → include → groups
The tactics were simple and repeatable: residents packed council and county commission meetings, filed public records requests and gathered signatures for moratoriums and referendums.
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residents → pack → moratoriums
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
