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Hundreds of Granite State progressives gathered at the State House in Concord on Saturday to express their anger at President Donald Trump, DOGE advisor Elon Musk, and a myriad of policy positions from abortion restrictions to the patriarchy in general — with a shoutout to Black Lives Matter along the way.

The event was promoted as part of International Women’s Day, and New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley boosted it online. “Defend our democracy! Stand up for human rights!” the poster read.

Protester Erin Marlow showed up to support women and oppose Trump.

The Women’s Day protest in Concord, N.H. on March 8, 2025.

“The most important thing to me is protecting our democracy and making sure (Trump) doesn’t take over and try to become authoritarian,” Marlow said. “I think they already are acting in an authoritarian manner and that to me is the most important thing to resist.”

Resistance took many forms on Saturday, whether it was an elderly woman beating a drum decorated with a peace sign, the Bon Jovi sing-along, or the pink “pussy hats” sported by a few protestors.

The protest is part of the 50501 Movement slate of national protests targeting the Trump administration. 50501 bills itself as a grassroots organization and is aligned with The Political Revolution PAC, a small off-shoot organization that came out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign.

Protest organizers took up position in front of the State House with a PA system and a table to sign up new volunteers. While organizers brought signs for the crowd, many brought their own. Messages ran the gamut with “This Is Not Normal,” “Hex The Patriarchy,” “Stop The Coup,” “Resist Fascism,” “Abortion Is Healthcare,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Stop The Bro-ligarchy,” and “Fire The Liar,” among others.

There were even a few messages with religious themes: “For Lent, let’s give up fascism.”

Notably missing from the event were any prominent elected New Hampshire Democrats.

The boisterous crowd cheered when passing drivers honked their car horns in approval, danced along to music, and came up with multiple variations of the ubiquitous protest chant “Hey hey/ho ho.” Sometimes Donald Trump had to go, other times, it was Musk.

Marlow hopes Saturday’s protest, and others like it across the country, can help build a movement that can win at the ballot box. 

“This shows the rest of the country that people are not happy with the way that it’s going, and it shows the rest of the world that Americans are not happy with the way things are going. It gives people the confidence to keep going, keep resisting, and be really active in the next election,” Marlow said.

A major focus of the protests was opposition to laws limiting women’s sports and spaces to biological females. That inspired a small group of supporters of girls-only sports to show up as well.

“We have a small group but we have a dedicated group,” said Bronwyn Sims.

Sims said she and her compatriots hoped to engage with the other protestors and educate them about their support for biological women.

“Some people seem to be confused about our position on this. We are not against transgender rights, we are not against anyone who chooses to be transgender,” Sims said. “We also believe that women and girls have rights, and we do have the right to our own spaces and our own sports, our own bathrooms and our own prisons. It really doesn’t have to do with being against anybody.”

First-term Democrat U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) told a town hall in Keene Friday that while she is determined to fight the spending cuts proposed by President Trump and his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), she isn’t prepared to commit to a government shutdown to show her opposition.

The DOGE effort led by billionaire Elon Musk was a hot topic among the hundreds of Granite Staters who turned out to see Goodlander at the Keene Public Library.

“We have to create leverage wherever we can and we’ve got to fight back with everything we’ve got,” Goodlander said.

But Goodlander dodged when one resident asked if she’d support shutting down the government to gain that leverage. The government is set to run out of funding on March 14 unless Congress can agree to a new spending plan. Without that agreement, the government will shutter.

“Do Democrats have the chutzpah to do that,” one resident asked.

Goodlander was noncommittal. Goodlander repeated her line that Democrats need to use “every tool we got,” but pointedly refused to say she would support a shutdown. Instead, she seemed disinclined to disrupt the lives of federal workers.

 “I want to protect federal workers and the federal workforce,” Goodlander said.

Until recently, one member of that federal workforce was her husband, Jake Sullivan. He served as National Security Advisor to former President Joe Biden, where he played a key role in the policies that led to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and U.S. policy toward Russia.

Goodlander’s measured response did not appear to match the mood of the audience. Constituent after constituent expressed their concern about possible budgets cuts — including to programs Trump has pledged not to cut, like Social Security and Medicare — and urged Democrats like Goodlander to take action. There were even people defending foreign aid spending, which is unpopular with the electorate at large.

Goodlander’s example of getting and using leverage for her agenda was a story she told about swapping her office space with a Republican lawmaker. But first, she got him to agree to co-sponsor at least three bipartisan bills with her. 

The constituents in Keene looked for leadership during these uncertain times, but Goodlander kept offering solutions from a politician working under normal circumstances. 

“What can we do, the people that are in this room, because I don’t think we can wait two years,” resident Sandy Marchand asked.

Goodlander’s suggestion is to sign up to get emails from her office. 

When asked about reports that ICE may use the federal prison in Berlin as a detention center for immigrants in the country illegally, Goodlander said she is concerned and would be monitoring the situation. 

Goodlander even tried to reassure the crowd about the separation of powers under the Constitution, saying that both the legislative and the judiciary branches have as much power as the executive. 

“We don’t have the courts!” one man shouted in response.

The crowd, which was clearly primed for some partisan red meat, finally got what they wanted when Goodlander launched an attack on Elon Musk.

“We have an unelected billionaire using a social media platform he owns to direct the federal government,” Goodlander said to cheers. “This is not right. This is not anything we signed up for.”

But later in the conversation, Goodlander said she would not support using congressional hearings to grill Musk about his quasi-role in government.

“Public hearings can be more performance than substance,” Goodlander said.

Instead, Goodlander wants to talk about Musk’s obvious conflicts of interest without the need for hearings. 

“We will be shining a spotlight on his conflicts of interest,” Goodlander said. 

Goodlander is serving her first term after having worked in the Biden administration. At 38, she’s one of the younger members of Congress, though her politics seem more in line with older Democrats. But her voters may be losing patience with Biden-Pelosi Democrats.

“Donating money to Democrats does not seem like a good way to fight back anymore,” Maggie Duggan said.

Manchester Republican Victoria Sullivan had her Twitter account permanently suspended last week after she shared a New Hampshire Journal article about Manchester’s homeless crisis. And she has no idea why.

“If you’re a conservative, especially a conservative woman, they try to silence your voice,” she told NHJournal.

Sullivan, a former state representative and two-time mayoral candidate in Manchester, tweeted NHJournal’s coverage of Mayor Joyce Craig’s ongoing struggle to address the city’s growing homeless crisis. Soon after, Twitter shut down her account.

Sullivan says she does not know why she was suspended. “I am appealing, but they don’t tell you anything,” Sullivan said. “They don’t tell you what Twitter rules were violated.”

Craig was once considered a rising star in the New Hampshire Democratic Party, believed to have her eye on a run for the governor’s office. Amid the crime and homelessness during her tenure, however, many Democrats privately express doubts about a bid for higher office. Last week, Craig and a group of her fellow Democratic mayors wrote Gov. Chris Sununu asking him to deploy the National Guard to address the homelessness plaguing their cities and towns. Critics say it was an attempt to deflect criticism for her mismanagement of the issue.

Sullivan said she is not a heavy Twitter user. On Thursday she retweeted New Hampshire Journal’s article with her own comments, including the demand for Craig to resign. In the days before the suspension, Sullivan also posted videos of Manchester business owners speaking at a public Board of Alderman meeting about the homeless crisis impacting the city.

This is not the first time Sullivan has been banned on Twitter. During her first run for mayor, Sullivan was booted from the platform and unable to get back on despite an appeal. She thinks her photos from the Women’s Self-Defense League family picnic may have triggered someone enough that she was reported.

Sullivan said New Hampshire liberals engage in egregious behavior on the platform without any seeming reprisals from the company. Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford) was forced to issue an apology in 2021 after she sent a post about Israel widely viewed as anti-Semitic. Rep. Alissandra Rodríguez-Murray, (D-Manchester) referred to Jewish people as termites on the platform last year.  In 2019, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley retweeted a post that included the “N-word.”

All three are still active on Twitter.

Twitter did not respond to multiple requests for information, including an explanation for Sullivan’s suspension. The phone number listed on the company website does not seem to work and the email address for the Twitter media relations team immediately bounced back.

Twitter’s corporate offices are reportedly in turmoil a few months after the company was bought out by mercurial billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion. After firing most of the Twitter staff, Musk himself has come under fire for his handling of the social media company.

According to the Associated Press, the company no longer has a media relations team. The AP was seeking comment on its story reporting Twitter is behind on rent payments for the San Francisco headquarters.

Meanwhile, Craig’s struggles to manage Manchester’s homeless crisis continue. The city suffered several high-profile incidents over the Christmas holidays, including the deaths of two homeless people and the birth of a child in freezing temperatures at a homeless encampment. The mother, Alexandra Eckersley, 26, was well known to Manchester authorities. She is the daughter of former Red Sox pitcher and sports commentator Dennis Eckersley.

The baby was naked and struggling to breathe when authorities found him.

Facing political blowback. Craig issued an order to vacate Sunday for the homeless encampment on the corner of Manchester and Pine Streets. “The notice will be posted at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, January 9, 2023, and individuals must vacate themselves and their belongings by 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17,” according to a statement from the Craig administration.

“At what point does Gov. Sununu decide the state must step in?” Sullivan said in response to the news. “These people will be scattered into our trails, in our neighborhood, and many will die. This is insanity!”