Craig Blair, who heads up Peaceful Bluegrass Resistance, says he's heard from individuals who aren't sure they'll be joining the protest in the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza this time around.
"I have heard from people that say I came to the last 'No Kings' rally, which was in June, but I just don't feel safe coming to this one," he tells WUKY. "It's unfortunate, because that's exactly what they hope will happen."
The #NoKings rally filled the courthouse plaza and lined roadways in downtown Lexington, with chants of “Silence is compliance” and “This is what democracy looks like.” pic.twitter.com/pMdApxbwvI
— WUKY (@wuky) June 14, 2025
The "they" Blair is referring to are Republican leaders, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has framed the protests as a “Hate America rally.”
"It’s all the pro-Hamas wing and the antifa people, they’re all coming out," Johnson said last week.
Blair, whose group has set up hundreds of smaller roadside protests this year, says the events all have been nonviolent.
"Everything they accuse us of they are doing, and I hate to make it partisan like that, but it really is," he adds. "They talk about left-wing radicals, radical activists, domestic terrorists, and we just haven't seen any of that."
There's been a noticeable shift, a positive response.Craig Blair, head of Bluegrass Peaceful Resistance
The Lexington event — which joins more than 20 other Kentucky protests and thousands nationwide — is set for this Saturday, October 18. Blair says marshals and monitors will be keeping watch over the event, which drew thousands in its first iteration.
Recent events and a ramping up of tensions across the country have led Peaceful Bluegrass Resistance to alter how they organize.
"We used to post our weekly schedule online for people to see and come join us and we've stopped doing that," Blair says. "We're really not protesting on a regular schedule anymore, so people can't really predict where we're going to be."
The change wasn't made because of any one particular incident involving the group, though some people have sought to intimidate protesters. At the same time their strategies are shifting, Blair says reaction along roadways is trending in a more encouraging direction for the group.
"We do still have people that will flip us off and yell at us and stuff, but by and large we have many more positive horn honks... especially from the big truck drivers and delivery drivers. So there's been a noticeable shift, a positive response."
Blair urges those who attend to keep the "No Kings" event — as his group's name suggests — peaceful.
Full Kentucky "No Kings" list:
- Lexington: 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
- Louisville: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
- Frankfort: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
- Bardstown: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Berea: 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
- Danville: 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
- Elizabethtown: 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
- Hazard: 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
- London: 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
- Louisa: 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
- Maysville: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
- Morehead: 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
- Richmond: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
- Saint Matthews: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m.
- Shelbyville: 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- Stanford: 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m.
- Bowling Green: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Central City: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Franklin: 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Henderson: 5 p.m. – 6 p.m. CDT
- Hopkinsville: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Madisonville: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Owensboro: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT
- Paducah: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. CDT