“Honk your horn!” Debby Hanmer urged drivers at the intersection of East Church Street and North Main Street in Laurinburg on Saturday.
Hanmer smiled as the driver of a silver pickup truck laid on his horn and gave a thumbs-up at her double-sided sign that read “Supercallous, fragileracist, sexistnazi POTUS” and “A ‘woman’s place’ is in the resistance.”
Hanmer, 73, was among the roughly 50 people who participated in a “No Kings” protest in Laurinburg that was organized by the Young Democrats of Scotland County. Dozens of similar protests took place across North Carolina as part of a national movement denouncing the Trump administration’s policies and its increasing concentration of power in the executive branch.
The Laurinburg protest was the second held in Scotland County. The first was in June, when the “No Kings” movement kicked off. More than 100 people participated, contributing to one of the largest mass protest turnouts in American history.
“The resistance is here,” said BreeAna Johnson, vice president of the Young Democrats of Scotland County, which was founded in February. “It’s next door. It’s right down the road. It’s not just in bigger cities. This is a rural area, and so we will be impacted the most by these politics.”
Demonstrators said they were concerned about a range of issues: The overturning of Roe v. Wade. Persecution of the LGBTQ+ community. Aggressive arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). President Donald Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to cities across the country. Changes to environmental regulations. Redistricting efforts by Republican state leaders.
“I grew up in the ‘70s going to protests against the Vietnam War and for environmental issues,” said Hanmer, who has lived in Scotland County for two decades. “I feel like the life that I have enjoyed—and I’ve enjoyed a long life—is at risk for my children, my grandchildren, and everyone.”
Like Hanmer, many of the Laurinburg protesters were baby boomers who lived through the civil rights movement and pushed for women to have more opportunities. Some said President Donald Trump’s policies are taking the United States backwards..
“We had made a lot of historical progress, and it’s been eroded so quickly,” said Elise Morgan, 73 and a Laurel Hill native. She is part of the North Carolina Grandparents for Democracy chapter, a national organization advocating for social justice. “We care about our children’s futures, our grandchildren.”
Driver after driver passing through the intersection honked their horn in support of the protest or stuck their head out to cheer on demonstrators. But like much of rural North Carolina, Scotland County voters who reliably picked Democratic candidates have shifted their support to the GOP. Trump won the county in 2020 and 2024. Republicans took control of the county board of commissioners for the first time last fall.
“I grew up here, and I left because I was like, ‘This small town, they don’t believe in what I believe,’” said Stephanie Poole, a 29-year-old who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. “It’s like there’s no community here.”
The protest’s turnout relieved Poole and Erika Fox, a 35-year-old Laurinburg native. The pair, who were among the few Generation Z and millennial demonstrators, described feeling less isolated in their identities and beliefs.
“It gives me hope that it’s not a lost cause,” Fox said. “Just because [Scotland County] has turned more red and more Republican and more towards Trump, it’s not a lost cause. And, hopefully, now people’s eyes are being opened after all these awful things that are happening in the government right now.”
Organizers with the Young Democrats of Scotland County said they were disappointed the event didn’t draw more young people. Many Americans under 30 are less engaged with politics and less likely to say that voting is important, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
“It means a lot to know that a lot of older people understand [the concern] and are out here fighting for their rights, but also ours,” Johnson said. “We just hope to be the change. To show people that it doesn’t matter where you are. You can use your voice. You can stand up for what’s right. You shouldn’t be scared of pushback.”
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Border Belt Independent Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues and can be supported through a donation to the Border Belt Reporting Center, Inc.