Since Donald Trump’s Inauguration, large-scale protest events have taken place around the US, with many of the biggest events being held in Washington, DC. The streets of the nation’s capital have been flooded with people marching about a diversity of progressive issues including women’s rights, climate change, and gun violence. Although research has found that these events have mobilized a high proportion of repeat participants who come out again-and-again, limited research has focused on understanding differential participation in protest, especially during one cycle of contention. This paper, accordingly, explores the patterns among the protest participants to understand differential participation and what explains persistence in the Resistance. In it, we analyze a unique dataset collected from surveys conducted with a random sample of protest participant at the largest protest events in Washington, DC since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Our findings provide insights into repeat protesters during this cycle of contention. The paper concludes by discussion how our findings contribute to the research on differential participation and persistence.
Trump’s State of the Union Address Ignores Climate Change
