In a packed charter bus, women share food, arrange blankets and settle in as they travel overnight to and from the nation’s capital for the “Remove the Regime” protest. (Photo: Amanda Becker for The 19th.)
This story was originally published by “19. News”.
When an olive green charter bus pulled into a suburban civic center in a conservative neighborhood east of Cincinnati just after 9 p.m. Friday, the women were ready.
They loaded the bus with duffel bags, coolers and snack bags. They carried handmade signs that read “Convict, Convict, Delete,” transgender pride flags, and the red hooded coats and white bonnets that made famed “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the dystopian feminist novel adapted into the popular Hulu series.
Cincinnati was the first of three stops on a flip-and-burn tour from Ohio to the nation’s capital on “Remove the regime” he protested – and it wasn’t the most logical route. Stops in the suburbs near Columbus and Cleveland added hours to the trip. The women didn’t seem to care.
Passengers boarded a obscure bus – a dozen in Cincinnati, 14 near Columbus, 20 just outside Cleveland. Some of the women brought friends, some brought their spouses, and still others traveled alone. As each recent group boarded and everyone settled in, there was a brief introduction to their fellow passengers. several of them built tents out of blankets to block the chilly air from entering and the lights of passing buses on the highway.
They would need all the rest they could get. This protest trip would involve two overnight bus journeys over 36 hours and just 12 hours in the field.
For people like Judy Routhier, who boarded in Cleveland, the trip to Washington was the latest in a series of public efforts to oppose the Trump administration. The mother of four, who is married to a military veteran, said this was her 72nd protest since February. She brought laminated posters with the words: “Fat Trump Must Fall! He’s on Epstein’s List” and “This Piggy Won’t Be Quiet!” Accuse. CONVICT. DELETE”.
Deann Ragsdale, who came on board in Cincinnati, launched her first public campaign despite opposing almost every aspect of Republican Donald Trump’s presidency from the beginning. The longtime maternity nurse and mother of three teenagers – including one who is transgender – has a grueling hospital schedule. The protest fell on a weekend off. “Something has to change and we have to start somewhere,” she said.
Like at multiple anti-Trump events AND his administration, most of the bus passengers were womenalthough the couple who spoke to The 19th noted that men are increasingly joining them in local protest actions. Women said they were encouraged to act by the administration’s moves to limit reproductive rights, its attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, its hostility toward immigrants and its disregard for the rule of law.
The organizer of the “Remove the Regime” campaign was, among others, member organizations of the Relocation Coalitiona grassroots effort, just like taking the bus to Ohio. The trip took place just days earlier when a Florida woman raised over $30,000 crowdfunding to “find affordable buses and coordinate seats so no one gets left behind just because they can’t pay for a ticket.” Someone else created a “Get to DC” Facebook page to connect travelers. There were also local events in places such as Charleston, South CarolinaAND Fairmont, West Virginiafor those who didn’t make it to Washington.
As the bus pulled into Union Station, near the Capitol building, just before 9 a.m. Saturday, Jen Mazzuckelli, who served as the point person for the Cincinnati group, changed into her Handmaid’s coat and headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Like many on the bus and at the larger protest, Mazzuckelli is committed to wa a grassroots political movement known as 50501 — as in 50 protests, 50 states, one movement.
“If someone says ‘50501,’ you know they’re in the fight, you know they’re in the resistance,” Mazzuckelli, 52, said. “I feel like I’m in Star Wars.”
Mazzuckelli, a mother of three who escaped an abusive marriage, knows firsthand how looming Republican cuts to social security programs like Medicaid health insurance and SNAP nutritional assistance could impact her suburban Ohio community. After her divorce, she stated that she was receiving assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, which provided cash assistance for immediate needs until she began receiving alimony. He is currently receiving a disability pension due to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. She is spending more and more time protesting the Trump administration and is considering another run for office after last year’s unsuccessful bid for her county’s GOP-dominated board of commissioners. For now, he is trying to be a thorn in their side by showing up at meetings.
As Mazzuckelli and the other women dressed as Handmaids sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial next to a giant copy of the U.S. Constitution, she thought, “This will probably end up in the history books if we have real history books… This is a historic moment and I’m glad I got to be a part of it instead of watching it on TV.”
“Remove the Regime” is a three-day campaign that includes lobbying, training, an event honoring the military and its veterans, followed by a rally and march. There were musical performances by the Dropkick Murphys, among others, and a sold-out fundraiser for “Comedy Church” with a set from North Carolina’s Cliff Cash, known for his humor challenging Southern conservatism. Cash was one of the first to join the Removal Coalition, founded by Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer in 2016, who filed a class action lawsuit in connection with the apply of confidentiality agreements. Rep. Al Green, a progressive from Texas, spoke at the rally, as did a House challenger Kat Abughazaleh from Illinois.
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The protest events came after a particularly tumultuous week for Trump that highlighted his past treatment of women and continued hostile rhetoric toward women. After months of delay tactics on behalf of GOP leadershipCongress voted Tuesday to force the Justice Department to release records related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump growled, “Hush! Hush, little pig,” at a Bloomberg News reporter who asked about the release of Epstein’s files aboard Air Force One. But then he reversed course and wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “I DON’T CARE! All I care about is getting Republicans back on track.”
The rally signs were littered with references to Epstein; Routhier, who also wore a fluffy pig hat, was one of hundreds of people who re-enacted Trump’s exchange with the reporter in his protest attire. A woman from Northern Virginia carried a sign that read, “Silence, Piggy, Little Fascist Piggy.” A woman in a Trump mask, with pig ears and a muzzle, held a sign that read, “BAN THE PIGGY!!.” as she stood next to her husband, an Air Force veteran. At least half a dozen protesters were dressed as Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show.
It wasn’t the biggest anti-Trump event, but it was crucial to those in attendance.
Amber Curry, a 36-year-old from Georgia, said the president’s treatment of women was a large part of drawing her to Washington for the first-ever protest. Her husband is a disabled veteran, and her family of six relies on programs like SNAP — which disproportionately serve women, children, and older and disabled Americans — to feed themselves and make ends meet. Their benefits, disrupted during the record-breaking government shutdown that ended earlier this month, still have not returned to normal. Curry warned that she might cry while talking about her reasons for taking part in the protest. “It’s so beautiful, people here are listening because no one around me is listening,” she said.
After the speakers and musical performances, the Miss Piggies, along with inflatable eagles, polar bears, frogs, sharks, foxes, and at least one Cookie Monster, lined up behind the Handmaids and began marching. When Marine Force One passed directly overhead as Trump returned to the White House from air trip with Jack Nicklaus around the planned golf course near Joint Base Andrews, fists and middle fingers were raised in the air.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
At the end of the day, the Ohio women returned to Union Station, where they gathered in the basement to wait for the bus. They rolled up the signs before traveling back to America’s Heartland. There was emotion as they shared their experiences.
Erin Nezi, 45, said she initially wanted to protest the Trump administration because she “felt a camaraderie with all these women,” referring to the Handmaids, who had by then removed their capes. The first local Nezi protest took place in February; in recent weeks, she began traveling to the nation’s capital. She is part of a group of women trying to build an “army” of Handmaids in rural and suburban southern Ohio.
Nezi is currently unemployed after years spent on the assembly line producing steering wheels for Ford vehicles. Her husband is a completely disabled Navy veteran who relies on Veterans Affairs benefits. She said she was protesting on his behalf, as well as on behalf of other women like her, her LGBTQ+ family members, immigrants in her community and her 69-year-old mother who relies on subsidized housing. The constant question on her mind, she said, is: “When will it come?”
The women boarded just after 9 p.m. The bus left Washington, D.C., passed through Maryland and Pennsylvania, then stopped in Cleveland, Columbus and finally Cincinnati as the sun rose over the horizon. They thanked the bus driver, also a woman. She thanked them for coming to the protest.
Routhier said her 73rd protest has already been planned.
Ragsdale is considering making a video sharing how she put together the sturdy, reusable sign.
Mazzuckelli wants to continue “deep organizing” in rural, conservative areas of Ohio, perhaps in conjunction with the Working Families Party.
“My idea is to create an engaged group here in Clermont [County] and start pushing east,” she said.
