Rio DeCielo addresses protesters at the West Virginia Capitol on Wednesday. The protest was part of a 50 state grassroots movement standing up against Trump, Project 2025 and state policies. (Caity Coyne | West Virginia Watch)
More than 100 people gathered on the stairs outside the West Virginia Capitol on Wednesday with protest signs and chants to speak out against recent actions from both state and federal Republican officials.
The protesters decried policies from Project 2025, a right-wing set of ideals published by the conservative Heritage Foundation as a wish-list for Donald Trump’s presidency that are now starting to be realized through federal executive orders and actions. Protesters also shared concerns with Elon Musk’s new role in the federal government and lamented state-level movements that reflect those happening on the national level.
The protest Wednesday was a grassroots effort largely organized through social media. It was part of a national project called “50501,” meaning 50 protests, 50 states, one day, according to posts. Outside of posts on Reddit and other social media sites, origins of the day of protest remain unknown.
In West Virginia, while no specific organization was overseeing the protest, several nonprofit organizations — the West Virginia arm of the American Civil Liberties Union and the West Virginia Women’s March, among others — were present Wednesday, handing out literature and connecting with people who are concerned and angry about recent federal and state policies.
Brianna Griffith, of Montgomery, said she came out to the protest on Wednesday because she was “scared” for her transgender friends, who are being targeted through actions by both the state and federal governments.
Griffith, who has been protesting at the state Capitol for years on myriad issues from labor rights for teachers to stopping mountaintop removal, said she believes people are getting tired of having to defend their rights and beliefs against constant attacks.
“I just feel like we’re losing our democracy to — I hate to say fascism because that sounds really extreme, but it really feels like it right now,” Griffith said. “I think the more people out here we get doing things like this, the more our state Legislature will see that they have us to answer to.”
An LGBTQIA Pride flag hung around Griffith’s shoulders — as well as several other protesters’ — as she chanted with the crowd. She said she bought several to hang on her home in a Montgomery holler to show her neighbors that, if they identify as LGBTQIA, they had an ally nearby. The flags on her home, she said, now join the multiple Trump flags hanging on her neighbors’ homes.
“It can be a little scary at times [speaking out], but I think it’s important to let people know that we’re here too,” Griffith said. “If there’s people like me down here, I want them to know that we’re here together. There’s more of us than they think and we’re mad.”
A lack of guardrails on governance
Aaron Allred, who served as the state’s Legislative Auditor for 30 years under both Republican and Democratic leadership, attended Wednesday’s protest with heavy concerns over a lack of safeguards to power in both the federal and state governments.
Allred said it’s confusing to see federal actions proposed — like efforts to freeze federal grants and attacks by Musk against Medicare and Medicaid — that would disproportionately harm residents in West Virginia and Appalachia, where a majority of people voted for Trump.
“I think we have to take seriously what Musk and Trump are doing. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, you should expect a separation of power,” Allred said. “If Congress is not going to be a check on Musk and Trump, we’re going to have to have people peacefully protest and we’re going to have to have people from the middle class and the middle of the political spectrum be willing to stand up and say, ‘America has never been based upon an executive [doing] whatever the hell he wants.”
On the state level, as the Republican supermajority has grown its hold on the Legislature, Allred is concerned about the consequences of a bill passed last year that diminished the powers of the Legislative Auditor’s Office, which was long viewed as a watchdog for government agency spending and performance.
Now, that office answers explicitly to the Senate president and the speaker of the House. No audits or reports can be created or released without their approval, making what was once an independent and transparent process now inherently partisan.
“They’ve taken off guardrails that are important for government to function properly,” Allred said. “In my 31 years [at the Legislative Auditor’s Office], no one ever told me what I could look at and what I could audit and what I could publish. You’ve got to have an independent voice that tells the truth with facts, and I think we’re walking away from that. In the long run, that will bite us in the rear.”