'No Kings' rallies aim to mobilize voters ahead of midterms

We're going to talk about the midterms. We're 17 days away, so a little more than two weeks away from the midterm elections. Early voting is underway. It started this past Tuesday. Happening today, no-kings vote rallies are set to happen across metro Atlanta. One of them being held in Smyrna. That's where we'll find our Kim Leffler. She joins us live now to talk about what's going on. Kim, I see the signs behind you. Tell us what's happening. Hey, Jasmine. Yeah, good morning to you. people are still kind of trickling in at this point. I'm going to flip this around so you can see what we're seeing. A couple dozen folks that are out here. This was set to get started at 10 o'clock with some speakers and then folks are going to come out here to the roadway where I am and where some of these folks are to begin protesting here and speaking out. That's going to be happening until about 12. But of course, we saw a lot of these No Kings protests happen starting last year, but today is focused on folks certainly speaking out against President Trump and his administration and some policies that they don't agree with. But also a big focus is on elections and getting people out to the polls. But I did speak with some organizers of this rally here today, not too long ago. Take a listen to what they had to say. No Kings is part of the national movement No Kings, which is hosted by Indivisible. We are nonpartisan organization who's out here doing two things. Number one, protesting the corruption of the current administration, and number two, trying to get out a huge early vote turnout. We're really thrilled with how things have gone so far on day one, but this event is all about positivity, the joy of getting together, demonstrating, and voting together today. Now, you know, I have covered the other No Kings protests that have happened. Why is it so important to continue to do this type of thing? Well, I would say, first and foremost, our own community. We're here in our backyard. We are going to be out amongst our friends, our family. This is a child friendly event. And even though the focus this time is on voting early, people can kind of air their grievances in a positive way, in a peaceful way. Protesting along Atlanta Road here on anything that they see fit, so. 100%. I mean, at its core, that's what this movement's all about, is preserving and protecting our democracy for us and for future generations, regardless of one's background. So that is the crucial thing right now in the midterms in 2026. We're encouraging everybody, regardless of who you are, to check your status, get out there to vote. We still have about two and a half weeks left. No better time than today to do it, though. So this group is going to be making their way here to Atlanta Road. Soon going to be protesting there until noon and then they're actually going to be making their way to First Baptist Church here that does serve as a early voting location here in Smyrna. But again, this is just one of over 40 of these No Kings protests and get out the vote rallies that are happening all throughout the state. This is one of the first ones that's happening here today but of course we will keep you updated throughout the morning if you want to check out a full list of those rallies and see which one is happening happening closest to you you can head to Fox5Atlanta.com Jasmine all right kim thanks so much for joining us live from smyrna i will check in with you a little bit later this morning again she is in smyrna there is another one happening in the city of Atlanta but of course many happening across Georgia