On Wednesday afternoon, around 300 people gathered with signs and chants on the Capitol steps, participating in a nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies.
Signs and speakers, gathering around a loudspeaker, carried messages against federal and state policy on LGBTQ protections, deportations, federal funding threats, and billionaire Elon Musk’s access to government information amid Trump’s effort to cut government programs.
Women’s March West Virginia President Robin Cutlip attended the event, after the group posted information about the planned West Virginia 50501 event on social media, but said the group did not organize the protest.
“We are stronger together,” Cutlip said, speaking on the loudspeaker. “We can defeat this. We have to make sure that we continue to share each other’s posts, that we continue to be there with each other. Today was not an organized event. Why did it need to be? Look around. This is what happens when the people of America come together.”
Representatives from the ACLU of West Virginia were also there, monitoring the protest and passing around volunteer sign-up forms.
Andrea Vincent, a teacher from Weston, said she came because she was concerned about Trump’s efforts to eliminate the federal Department of Education and related funding.
“Our state is so dependent on that federal money, the people of West Virginia, this is not a party issue anymore,” Vincent said.” This is for our future.”
Last week, the Trump administration issued, then rescinded a memo freezing trillions in federal funding. At a press conference Jan. 28, Gov. Patrick Morrisey acknowledged federal funding accounts for almost half the state’s overall budget, and that his office was “going to try to unpack (the freeze announcement) and talk with the Trump administration.
Morrisey has not commented further on the freeze, and his office has not responded to WVPB’s request for comment this week about the status of talks with the Trump administration.
Vincent says she has seen school closures in Lewis County before and now teaches at a middle school that receives federal Title I grants, which support school budgets in communities with high poverty rates.
“It’s happening right now,” Vincent said, referencing school closures in the state. “I see this happening every day. I see its effect on children.”
The event ended with protestors marching around the Capitol perimeter, starting towards the Governor’s mansion. They chanted against Trump, Musk and Morrisey.