PLATTSBURGH — North Country Democrats marched and rallied for women’s rights and the Harris presidential campaign in Downtown Plattsburgh Saturday.
Show Up Plattsburgh, a private group for women, hosted the community and several local Democratic officials for a march through Downtown Plattsburgh and a rally in Trinity Park.
“This was great. I think it is amazing to be on the other end of that, being invited to speak as opposed to being in the crowd,” Jennifer Tallon, Plattsburgh city councilor from Wart 4, said.
“I really appreciate the work Show Up put into this, in just a few months too, there is so much energy and enthusiasm here. I told Jess (organizer Jess Murnane), today will go by fast but to let it sit with you.”
The goal of the event was to create a safe space for members of the community to voice their concerns about this election and share stories of empowerment.
A line of Harris supporters stretched down the Margaret Street sidewalk during the march, heading toward Broad Street Commons and back, the group chanted phrases in unison:
“We’re not going back!”
“When we vote, we win!”
“Our body, our choice!”
Images of Harris’s face appeared floating above the crowd, surrounded by other handmade signs advocating for reproductive rights.
One sign read: “If a uterus could shoot bullets at you, you wouldn’t regulate it.”
Another: “Make lying wrong again.”
The march was bound to the sidewalk but the voices were heard throughout the city.
When the group returned to Trinity Park, several Democratic leaders from the state and local level were invited to speak.
Guest speakers included Brandi Lloyd, chair of the Clinton County Democratic Committee; State Assemblyman D. Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake); his Chief of Staff Connie Mandeville; Lisa Morrow, SEIU (labor union) representative; Elizabeth Gibbs, City of Plattsburgh Ward 3 councilor; Tallon; Wendell Hughes, the city’s Democratic Party mayoral candidate; Amy Collin, Ward 6 Democratic candidate; Julie Baughn, Ward 1 councilor; Dana Frusco, Show Up LGBTQ representative; Maggie Rourke, Akwesasne Mohawk Nation community member; Paula Collins, Democratic Candidate for New York’s 21st Congressional District, and a recording of a speech from Dani Rix, Show Up DEI Representative.
ENCOURAGING VOTING
The overlying message of the day was to encourage voter registration and the importance of voting, as well as show support for the Harris campaign and what it means to them.
“Throughout my life, I’ve had multiple ectopic or tubal pregnancies. The surgeries I had were life-saving for me, but not the pregnancy. These procedures would be illegal if Trump is elected, and that is not acceptable in my world. I am scared of what he will do to women’s rights and women’s health care. Trump will make the already devastating maternal health racial disparities in our country and our state worse,” Morrow said during her speech.
“He will be the reason health care costs skyrocket and healthcare coverage declines. The election is about all of us. We are all here showing up to make sure we do our part to protect our healthcare, our right to choose our freedoms in our right to a democratic society, as my hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, ‘women belong in all the places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.’”
SUPPORT FOR WOMEN
Morrow also discussed the threat Project 2025 and its anti-union policies pose to the labor movement.
“So in honor of RBG, let’s elect a woman to office. Let’s show up to protect unions and the labor movement. Let’s fight for middle class working families and let’s show up to protect women’s healthcare rights. Let’s show up to elect Kamala Harris this November,” she said.
Support for Proposition 1 in New York was also urged.
“It brings women into this with full rights in the state of New York. It brings LGBT people into full rights in the state of New York. It brings people into full status, regardless of their pregnancy status, which is very important, as somebody alluded to with the intentions of JD Vance, it also brings into full protection those people who are going through transition, because we need to make sure that their healthcare needs are met just as readily as the healthcare needs of men and women are met,” Paula Collins, the Democratic candidate for the 21st Congressional District, said.
“I want us to think about the fact that prop one does not add any laws into our state that are not already on the books.”
Proposition 1, would amend Article 1, Section 11 of the New York Constitution, which currently only protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed and religion.
The new proposal will amend the act to also protect against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive healthcare and autonomy.
The amendment would also allow laws to prevent or undo past discrimination.
REPUBLICAN CHAIR RESPONDS
David Souliere IV, City of Plattsburgh Republican Party chairman said Democrats can say what they want.
“From a City of Plattsburgh Republican standpoint, everyone is entitled to the right to free speech and peaceful assembly, which it sounds like they did. I respect it,” he said.
“Obviously, Republicans who feel differently about the previous four years with the Biden-Harris administration might see Trump as a more viable option.”
Souliere then quoted Ronald Reagan from the 1980 presidential debate, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” and said it’s become “puzzling” how anyone could want another four years with Harris.