Days after the 2026 mid-term elections delivered a wave of Democratic victories nationwide, Chicago activists gathered on the chilly, bright and sunny Nov. 7 afternoon at Federal Plaza in the Loop to send a message: Our votes count.
The People Have Spoken rally organizers’ overall message was a demand for accountability and action from elected officials, and for them to push back against the Trump administration’s attacks on all marginalized communities and democracy.
The event was organized by the Hands Off Chicago Coalition which includes the Chicago Federation of Labor, Equality Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Indivisible Chicago Alliance, Personal PAC and Sierra Club Illinois and numerous partner groups.
Speakers included Emcee and Education Leaders of Color Partnerships and Innovation Senior Director Jin-Soo Huh; Indivisible Chicago volunteer and Illinois Human Rights Commissioner Mony Ruiz Velasco; U.S. Representative-elect Daniel Biss (IL-9); and Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation Executive Director Rev. Jaime Fluker.
Huh, Velasco, Biss and Fluker all spoke about the election being a victory for the people, rule of law and decency and a rejection of fascism. They also demanded accountability for those who have engaged in corruption and other crimes.
Huh also said voters are fed up with the attacks on elected officials, media and activists just because they disagree with what the Trump Administration and MAGA are saying and doing. He further spoke about the election being a victory for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, Latiné and Black communities and women “who have been the targets of the worst from the Trump regime. I especially want to shout out that these attacks on transgender people aren’t working and we are standing with our transgender siblings.”
Additionally, Huh called for abolishing ICE, restoring the Voting Rights Act and protecting abortion access and bodily autonomy. He also noted the diversity of the newly elected Democrats across the country.
Velasco said the attacks on immigrants, women and LGBTQ+ people need to end. She added that people voted to “beat back” fear, intimidation, fascism, “masked armed bullies in our streets and limitations on access to reproductive rights, abortion and gender affirming care.”
Velasco also spoke about the Illinois Accountability Commission which is documenting abuses by ICE, activity that needs to be taken to the national level and “go even further.” She called for the full restoration of anti-discrimination protections at the federal level and said, “We must push our elected officials to be better than the ones who came before them.”
Biss said he will be joining the biggest class of Democratic freshmen in Congress in a generation. He added that, “You all did your job and now its time for people like me to do our jobs.”
But Biss said the fight for democracy isn’t over, and Americans need to put on the pressure and make demands to “make sure this Democratic Congress does what the people want … With the help and activism from people in every corner of this country we have created the conditions to one and for all put the American government back on the side of the people.”
Fluker said that, with the Nov. 3 elections, Americans “waved goodbye to high gas and grocery prices, unaffordable health care, corporate price gouging, funding the war against Iran and gerrymandering.”
Queer Singing Resistance Chicago member Noel Jones said it took her and others two months to create the green Statue of Liberty puppet they brought to the event. She said Singing Resistance was born in Minneapolis, “in response to the ICE shootings” there and has “spread all over the country.”
Jones added that she “loved the idea of visually amplifying the size of the people by making ourselves even bigger with this puppet.”
The over 1,000 attendees marched through the Loop to Michigan Avenue and then north to Wacker Drive, where they passed by Trump Tower, following the rally. They chanted “Tax the rich,” “If we don’t get it shut it down,” “Tell me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like” and other calls for accountability from the new Democratic majority in Congress.
Onlookers stopped to watch the march, and drivers honked their horns in support.
