Thousands of Kentuckians took to the streets on Saturday, taking part in a nationwide day of protest against the Trump administration.

Lexington was one of more than two dozen cities in the state to hold so-called no king's rallies.

It was the city's second such rally this year.

Organizers say the crowd and the sense of urgency were even greater this time around.

The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated.

There's a reason we're all here.

It's beautiful to see you, but there's a reason we're here.

Because with every single day that passes, our rights are being eroded.

Our boys are being silenced.

Our security is threatened.

Our stories are being erased.

Hey, our communities are less safe.

They are attacking regular people because he knows something powerful.

But our towns, our cities are the EU matters of democracy.

We are the front line of democracy.

When a dictatorship is being consolidated right now, and it's the courage of ordinary people that put a stop to it.

And that's why all these people are out here.

We need to make our voices heard now.

Are if if we get beyond a certain point, if authoritarianism is consolidated, we won't be able to speak out and we will have lost art.

That point is not here yet.

We have a chance to save our democracy, and a lot of people who have the same concerns and the same beliefs, and we're right here today, I think, is just even more enthusiastic and more joyful than it was in June.

But we're also the sense of urgency has not been lost.

We know that this moment, there are many dangerous things going on in the government that we have to try to address.

People are being stripped of their status and their humanity.

People are losing the very protections they saw by coming to this country.

People who came to this country to become a part of it, as I have, and as many of you have people who are working to make this a better country for all its people, as all of you are trying to do.

Everyone here today wants to do something.

Immigrants and refugees belong here.

I want you to stay with me.

Immigrants and refugees belong here.

But you know what?

This message isn't just a slogan.

This is a call to action.

My friends, obviously aren't here.

You know, they live in fear of ice.

They fear to go outside.

They go to work and they come home.

That's all they do.

So I'm here for those that don't have a voice.

I'm here for those that feel marginalized by society.

I am here for everybody that cannot come out here today.

I'm here today because human rights matter to me.

I would like to see, brown people be able to walk down the streets and not be disappeared.

I would like to see our constitution, being honored.

And I just want the freedoms that we have always had.

I'm tired of the lying.

I'm tired of the gaslighting.

I would just love a better country for my children.

I have a really diverse family, and so I'm fearful that they won't be able to be their true selves.

That they won't have benefits that I've enjoyed.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm, I'm semi-retired, so I'm worried about my future, but I, I want everything we had.

I would love comfort and innocence.

And I know that's gone.

I definitely fear for the younger person that as laws are being changed currently while I'm this young, I'm going to have to grow up in a world where, you know, people can't can't marry the people that they love or get the health care that they need.

I'm worried that one of these situations will one day be me or someone that I know, and they won't, and they will get the things that they need.

The most important thing is to keep this, momentum going.

It's easy to come together on one day, have a big protest, have a big march, and then sort of leave and not do anything afterwards.

But we have to go back home, and we have to make sure that we're still, resisting in the ways that we think that we need to and we need to push and keep going.

Some Republican state lawmakers have criticized the no King rallies online.

State representative TJ Roberts shared pictures on social media that he says show Saturday's rally in Florence.

He characterized it as, quote, open borders, filth, vandalism of public property, smears on our incredible Ice agents and the same vile rhetoric that got Charlie Kirk killed in, quote.