Saturday marked the third “No Kings” protest that has taken place since President Donald Trump took office last year. This was the first one since the U.S. and Israel started attacking Iran.
For Sally Hand, an art therapist in Bozeman, this war is personal.
"My grandson right now is an amazing 21-year-old who joined the Air Force to help do his part to make America better, he's now been shipped off to Iran, and I think it's absolutely inhumane and I'm very very angry and upset," Hand said.
Hand was one of more than 8,000 people at Bozeman’s No Kings protest. She worries how the war, and the corresponding surge in oil prices, alongside inflation, is harming young people like her grandson.
Shari Florence, one of several hundred people at the Billings No Kings protest, said affordability concerns were top of her mind.
"Prices. Coffee, gas – my god, look at gas. I don’t know how people are eating or driving anywhere,” Florence said.
According to AAA, the average cost of gas is now nearly $4 per gallon. That’s a dollar more than it was last month.
Rising prices of essentials was a common theme across the state. Gary Ochsner is an independent voter who was raised Republican. He was one of more than 120 people at the protest in Miles City. He’s in his mid-70s, but says he’s not sure how he’ll retire.
“I’m a rancher owning a small ranch. And if you look at the price I could get for it 40 years ago, I would’ve been flabbergasted. But now I don’t know if it’s enough to keep my wife and I going in retirement years," Oschner said.
Missoula saw the largest crowds with protest organizers reporting more than 9,000 people in attendance. Among them was 47-year-old wildlife biologist Russ Talmo. He’s attended all three No Kings events with his family.
“I hate to say it, there is a certain amount of fatigue. I think we're all tired of having to do this or be here," Talmo said. "We'd all rather be somewhere else today, on one hand. On the other, I think everybody recognizes this is the most important thing we can be doing.”
He said he’s trying to show his young children that showing up and speaking up matters.
MTPR's Edward F. O'Brien, along with Yellowstone Public Radio's Kayla Desroches, Karl Lengel and Ruth Eddy, contributed to this report.
