Fury and fear drive thousands in Virginia to protest Trump administration

Jane Harper, The Virginian-Pilot on Apr 13, 2025

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At 72, Clay Lory was enjoying his retirement. He enjoyed working on hobbies, traveling and spending time with family.

But over the past couple of months, the former Norfolk, Virginia, businessman has been devoted to a new passion — opposing the actions and policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. His days are now filled with attending protests and meetings, exchanging ideas with other activists and creating action plans with them.

The president’s treatment of immigrants was the primary spark for Lory.

“I’ve always had a strong sense of empathy,” he said. “And it’s just so sickening what Trump is doing to immigrants, tearing families apart, sending them to concentration camp prisons, without even going through the justice system here, to face inhumane and torturous conditions.”

Lory is one of many Virginia residents who’ve recently started speaking out against the second Trump administration, including its cuts to federal programs and the federal workforce, global tariffs and its treatment of immigrants and trans people. Last weekend, thousands attended local “Hands Off!” protests in Norfolk, Williamsburg and Hampton Roads. Many said they were first-time protesters.

“We’ve been doing this (local protests) for nine years and we’ve never seen the crowds and energy that we saw that day,” said Heather Meaney-Allen, a founding member of the Williamsburg and James City County chapter of Indivisible. “We saw a lot of young people, and that was really great to see.”

The Hampton Roads gatherings were among about 1,400 held April 5 in all 50 states and in Washington. Indivisible — a national grassroots movement formed in response to Trump’s first election in 2016, and one of the organizers of the event — estimated that three million attended nationwide.

Lory is on the steering committee for Indivisible’s South Hampton Roads chapter, which formed earlier this year, just five days after Trump’s second inauguration. The group says it’s committed to the “restoration of democratic and constitutional government in the United States,” and helped organize last weekend’s local protests.

The main organizer of the Town Point Park event in Norfolk was COVA Coalition, a Coastal Virginia women’s group that formed a couple of years ago to promote progressive issues and candidates.

The Hampton Roads protests got help getting the word out from national organizations such as MoveOn and Indivisible, said Carrie Short, a COVA co-founder. Participants were encouraged to sign up in advance through Mobilize, a technology platform that allows volunteers to register for all kinds of events.

“We were expecting about 1,000 (participants) but then the registrations kept coming in and it quickly became quite clear it was going to be a large crowd,” Short said.

Seeing so many first-time protesters was particularly rewarding, she said.

“We’re trying to convince normal everyday people that they need to get engaged in politics,” Short said. “Citizens need to take it upon themselves because their representatives (in Congress) aren’t doing anything.”

And while going to rallies can help people feel they’re making a difference, Short wants participants to focus on how they can continue the work after they leave, such as getting involved with local grassroots organization like COVA and Indivisible.

One of the major goals of COVA is to educate voters, Short said, including making sure they know who their representatives are, and how to get in touch with them.

“It’s time to get off the couch,” Short said. “This is your country. Act like it. The people who wrote the Constitution expected us to get involved and we’re letting them down.”

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