Around 2,000 people crowded the lawn at Florida's Old Capitol on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 for a No Kings rally. Attendance was down from previous events. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix) Sam Kokales has a personal stake in the midterm elections. At 21, working toward a degree in business management from Florida State University, he finds himself in deep medical debt following two procedures for an abscess on his tonsils.
“We need better healthcare coverage — Medicare for all,” Kokales told the Phoenix during Tallahassee’s latest No Kings demonstration on the front lawn of Florida’s Old Capitol.
“I just looked at my bills again yesterday. I have over $94,000 as a student on a Pell grant. Insurance’s covering some of it, but it’s taken me five months to continue to talk to the insurance company and hospital and I still don’t have it solved,” he said.
Kokales, attending with Olivia Barber, also 21 and working on her master’s degree in public administration at FSU, was among the conspicuously few at the rally lacking gray hair.
He lamented that, “being in a college town, there’s not more people out. Hopefully, we’ll see more.”
Kokales said he canvasses for Democrat David Jolly’s campaign for Florida governor; Barber does the same for PJ Perez, a Tallahassee City Commission candidate.
“I just try to talk to people,” Kokales said.
Both planned to station themselves at the FSU student union for early voting beginning Monday.
Olivia Barber, left, and Sam Kokales attended the No Kings day of action rally on Oct. 17, 2026, in Tallahassee. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
First ballot
Saturday’s rally unfolded under fleeting cloud cover with at times robust breezes, as attendance was down somewhat compared to a gathering nearly one year ago to the day. Similar rallies were unfolding the length and breadth of Florida.
The theme was “Vote Early.”
“We expected, across the nation, actually, that their own turnout would be a little bit less, just because it’s focused on getting out the early vote,” said Sabrina Harley of Indivisible Tallahassee, who emceed the event.
The No Kings movement’s earlier rallies “focused on kind of demonstrating and letting our voice be known about what we didn’t like,” she said. “Now the idea is just to coordinate across the nation and be ready to respond to any voter suppression.”
Halden Euridge, 18, majoring in history and economics at FSU, told the Phoenix he will vote for the first time this year. He attended Saturday’s rally with Donna Samara, his mother.
“I’ve always wanted to vote. I’ve always wanted to use my voice, so it was great when I got this opportunity,” Euridge said. “I think we should actually lower the voting age. Children also are affected by policy and they should have a say in elections.”
His friends are also politically engaged and some are canvassing for candidates, he said.
Disruption feared
Fears that President Donald Trump could deploy Department of Homeland Security agents to interfere with voting was a major theme. Karen Woodall of Florida People’s Advocacy Center stationed herself at a table directing attention toward Floridians caught up in immigration enforcement.
“We’re all concerned that people will be afraid to come out and vote because of the ridiculous immigration activities — either by ICE or in Florida our own Florida Highway Patrol, our own state agencies — all of that’s designed to suppress the vote and scare people. People who are legally here, who are registered to vote but they’re immigrants,” she said.
“So, we need to be vigilant,” she continued.
“I’m hopeful we won’t have any problems here in Tallahassee, but no one should assume anything. We just have to have monitors, we need to have people present. People need to come out and vote. That’s how we’re going to take care of all this stuff,” Woodall said.
Alonzo Garcia, left, and Sarah Milan attend the No Kings rally on Oct. 17, 2026, in Tallahassee. They’re collecting petition signatures to undo Tallahassee’s agreement to cooperate in immigration enforcement. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
‘Most egregious’
Alonzo Garcia staffed a booth for the Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance, gathering petition signatures to rescind the city’s 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allowing local police to work with ICE agents.
A former city manager signed the deal in 2025, and that October the City Commission voted, 3-2, to keep it.
“This is where right now the main, the most egregious abuses at the state, local, and federal level are happening, when it comes to immigration,” he told the Phoenix.
“While we recognize that elections are an important aspect of bringing change, they are not the only mechanism of change. We believe that through mass mobilization we can really bring changes, even outside of the electoral cycle, as we generally understand them in this country,” Garcia continued. “Because politicians don’t react only to just ballot results and percentages, but they also react to who’s the most organized, who’s the most agitated about an issue and how things move.”
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