At a cold People’s March: ‘Our voices don’t end at the ballot box’

With breezes pushing temperatures in the upper-20s into the feels-like teens Saturday afternoon, Ashley Pierce was among 100 people bundled up outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.

Pierce, in town from Lake County to visit family for the weekend, said she purposely carved out time in Lafayette, looking online for a local People’s March – one of scores organized by progressive groups across the country and held in conjunction with a national rally in Washington, D.C., two days before the start of a second Donald Trump presidency.

“It’s not cold enough out here to keep any of us away – me included,” Pierce said, offering a bit of shade for an inaugural moved indoors Monday because of forecasts of wind chills dipping into the single digits.

“It’s easy to feel exhausted by everything, I think,” Pierce said, amid those chanting and carrying signs advocating for reproductive rights, public schools and pushing back on Trump’s vow to deport undocumented immigrants. “I know I do. But I don’t want to feel exhausted. I want to feel we can stand up. That’s why I’m here – why we’re all here.”

Eight years ago, a similar rally ahead of Trump’s first inauguration drew enough people on a shirt sleeve-appropriate day that a crowd of an estimated 800 spilled off the sidewalks outside the courthouse in downtown Lafayette. Lafayette police eventually blocked Columbia Street to traffic that day for an event that had been called the Women’s March.

Saturday’s themes, in a series of speeches delivered from the bed of a pickup truck parked along Columbia Street, had as much to do with the Indiana Statehouse as they did about a second Trump administration.

“We’re already seeing some issues at the Statehouse, so we know we have to keep up with what’s coming out of there the best we can,” Susan Rowe, one of the march’s organizers, said. “We’ve got organizations like MadVoters and others that are making sure we know what’s happening in terms of the legislature in Indiana. Because it feels like (Gov. Mike) Braun feels like he’s got free rein now because Trump’s in charge and can do whatever he wants. That can’t be the case. … We know we have a lot of work to do.”

Braun, a former U.S. senator elected governor in 2024, said in his inaugural address last week that a second Trump administration promised an era of state, rather than federal, control over Indiana’s next moves. Among his first executive orders was one that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from state government offices and programs.

“I’m telling people, you need to pay attention,” state Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat, said after Saturday’s rally, ticking off a handful of bills aimed at extending restrictions on access to abortion and reproductive care, among others, filed during the opening of the 2025 General Assembly session.

“They can come for our freedoms, they can slow the tide of programs, but there is one thing they cannot take from us – our spirits,” Campbell had told the crowd. “We are a community that fights for everyone, regardless of their race, their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation, and we will continue.”

A march that started at the Margerum Fountain on the West Lafayette side of the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge was greeted along the westbound downtown bridge by some honks and hands throwing peace signs out of passenger side windows.

Marchers also got this midway across the bridge from one driver: “Trump won!”

Statewide, Trump took Indiana with 58.6% of the vote in the 2024 election to the 39.6% Kamala Harris received. In Tippecanoe County, Trump won, too, by a slimmer margin of 48.8% to 48.6%.

Trump won Tippecanoe County in 2016, with 48.6% of the vote to 43.1% for Hillary Clinton. (The Libertarian ticket and write-ins accounted for more than 8% of the vote that year.) In 2020, Joe Biden took Tippecanoe County, edging Trump 48.7% to 48.1%.

Mary Finnegan, a longtime Lafayette activist, encouraged the crowd to be guardrails in the next four years.

“Because there’s no mandate for any of this – contrary to what some people say, there’s no mandate at all,” Finnegan said. “We are divided country, and it looks like we have to make a lot more noise.”

Jay McCann, a political science professor at Purdue, took stock in the local rally happening in context with similar ones across the country. (Here’s coverage from The Washington Post from a national rally Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial: “Thousands rally at People’s March in D.C. to protest Trump.”)

“These kinds of rallies and marches may not have an immediate direct effect on policies,” McCann said. “But they still may make a difference over the longer run. Such events can help reinforce a sense of solidarity and purpose among participants who might otherwise feel dispirited about the outcome of the ’24 elections. In turn, these connections can help sustain activism.”

Amanda Eldridge, who ran a campaign as a Democrat for a seat on the Tippecanoe County Council, told the crowd to do just that.

“Our voices don’t end at the ballot box,” Eldridge said. “It is 24/7.”

THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

ARREST AFTER GUNSHOT INCIDENT AT TIPPECANOE MALL: Lafayette police arrested at 16-year-old boy Friday after an investigation of a possible shooting Thursday evening at Malibu Jack’s, an entertainment and arcade center at Tippecanoe Mall. According to police, the incident was reported at 5:45 p.m. Thursday. No one was shot or injured, LPD reported. An investigation led to the 16-year-old, who was arrested on suspicion of criminal recklessness with a firearm and dangerous possession of a firearm.

KARLAFTIS GOES OFF: West Side and Purdue standout George Karlaftis racked up three sacks in the second half of the Kansas City Chiefs’ playoff win over the Houston Texans. J&C reporter Sam King racked up the details here: “Former West Lafayette, Purdue football standout George Karlaftis has career day vs. Texans.”

MLK DAY EVENTS IN GREATER LAFAYETTE: Here’s sampling …

• The Tippecanoe County Public Library will host its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration at 11 a.m. Monday at the Holman Branch, 627 South St., in downtown Lafayette. Natasha Watkins, a clinical professor of human development and family science at Purdue, will present the keynote address.

• The West Lafayette Public Library, 208 W. Columbia St., will host a Reader’s Theater in honor of King at 2 p.m. The classroom play, read by library patrons, is about the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins of 1960. To participate or to see a script in advance, check in with Children’s Services desk.

• A free performance of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” will be 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, at Loeb Playhouse in Purdue’s Stewart Center. This “concert excerpt” version of the opera, adapted for Terence Blanchard and his band, the E-Collective, features the Turtle Island String Quartet and guest soloists, plus visuals by Andrew F. Scott. The show is the Purdue University Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Event. For tickets, here’s a link.

UPCOMING … WEST LAFAYETTE SETS COMMUNITY MEETINGS ON ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS: The West Lafayette City Council will hold a pair of community meetings – the first on Tuesday – to get feedback on a proposed zoning code changes that would clear the way for accessory dwelling units – including converted garages, basements and new backyard structures – in residential neighborhoods as a way to deal with the city’s ongoing housing shortage.

The meetings – Jan. 21 and Feb. 12 – come after the city council held off on a vote one the zoning code proposal, as residents in some near-campus neighborhoods and members of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission pushed back on the concept. The concern was that the plan would increase crowding in New Chauncey Neighborhood and others near Purdue. The city council agreed to postpone a vote until its March 3 meeting.

According to a city council release, the meetings will include a presentation by the Area Plan Commission staff asked to study the matter and give residents a chance to give their thoughts. According to the release, “the meetings will include a presentation of data from other municipalities where ADUs have been implemented, offering examples of their impact and effectiveness.”

If you go: The meetings will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 21 and 6 p.m. Feb. 12 at West Lafayette City Hall, 222 N. Chauncey Ave. The city council also is taking feedback via email to council@westlafayette.in.gov.

IN BRIEF …

• Greater Lafayette Restaurant Week starts Monday, Jan. 20, and runs through the end of the month. The showcase for three dozen-plus local restaurants and deals is in its fourth year, sponsored by Greater Lafayette Commerce, the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Visit Lafayette-West-Lafayette and Purdue Research Foundation. For a list of restaurants and the deals they’re offering, go to www.homeofpurdue.com/greater-lafayette-restaurant-week.

• Tipmont is taking applications from local high school juniors for the Indiana Youth Tour, an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. The trip is scheduled for June 15-22 and will visit the Gettysburg Battlefield, Arlington National Cemetery and the Smithsonian museums, tour the Jefferson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Franklin D. Roosevelt memorials, and more. Applications are due by Jan. 31. Applicants do not need to receive electric or fiber internet service from Tipmont to be eligible. Applications are available online at tipmont.com/youthtour or by contacting Tipmont Member Service at 800-726-3953.

• MHS Serves, a health equity program from Managed Health Services, is taking applications for grants in its Youth Mental Health Empowerment Program. Through Feb. 20, organizations in Tippecanoe County can apply for grants to expand current programs, services, initiatives and resources that directly address youth access to health care and mental health. The money is aimed at professional development, training opportunities, program implementation resources, technical assistance and consulting services, among other goals. For applications, go to: www.mhsserves.org. Organizations that have questions about the application process may email strategicpartnerships@mhsserves.org.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.