One recent Saturday morning, Twisp was full of activity, typical for the region’s peak tourist season.
People in bathing suits ready to raft on the Methow River. Shoppers getting fresh produce at the Twisp Farmers Market. Others gathered in Twisp Works, a community hub that offers a mix of retail, eateries, art and public green space.
At the corner of State Route 20 and South Glover Street, about 150 people gathered for what’s become routine for the community: a protest over President Donald Trump’s policies. Aug. 23 marked the 27th consecutive Saturday protest.
Despite living in a Trump stronghold, Okanogan County residents have been able to sustain several months of regular demonstrations and other activities protesting the first half-year of the president’s second term.
These Okanogan County protesters hope to connect with others with similar concerns, and also to be heard by those with differing viewpoints.
Okanogan County, which borders Canada, is the state’s largest county by area — at more than 5,300 square miles, nearly equal to the state of Connecticut. By population — the county had nearly 45,000 residents based on a 2024 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau — it’s smaller than a few dozen Washington cities.
It heavily favored President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, giving him 55.7% of the county’s votes to Democrat Kamala Harris’ 40.8%. However, several precincts within the county went for Harris, including those in the Methow Valley where Twisp is located.
Those protesting in Okanogan County want to call attention to how Trump’s policies from the other Washington will affect one of the state’s poorest counties: As of 2023, Okanogan County’s personal income per capita was $52,446, putting it in the bottom 28% of all counties statewide, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
As a result, many residents here are dependent on programs such as Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both of which will receive massive cuts under the budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump in early July.
Additionally, increased immigration enforcement actions may impact the immigrant and migrant workers who work in the county’s agriculture sector. The county is also home to public lands and other entities that employ federal workers.
For the Twisp protesters, highlighting these local impacts is important. Many hope that their efforts could reach their neighbors, including those who voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
“I would say democracy only works if we work it,” said Lauralee Northcott, who has lived in Twisp for 50 years and worked as a teacher for 34 years before retiring. “It slipped away by not working it enough. Every side matters. We need balance.”
Widespread civic action
The region is no stranger to local activism. Isabelle Spohn, who coordinates the weekly protest in Twisp, has long been active in environmental activism. In the 1970s and 1980s, Spohn and others tried to stop the construction of a large ski resort in Mazama that would have brought 10,000 skiers a day to a region with a fraction of year-round residents. The effort was successful, and the group involved in protesting that development — the Methow Valley Citizens Council — remains active, addressing land-use issues that could potentially affect the environment’s and region’s character.
For Spohn, this current protest effort has provided a space for people to voice concerns over several different issues, including the war in Gaza; the outsized influence of billionaires on public policy; the attack on public institutions, including some addressing public health and science issues; and dramatic cuts to government health care and nutrition programs.
The protests have attracted as many as 700 people — for example, when the protest coincided with the national “No Kings” protest this summer. Most weeks they get around 100 participants. The Methow Valley has 6,500 residents.
Participants include longtime residents who have been at all or nearly all the protests, and other residents who have relocated to the region in the past several years from other parts of the state, including the Puget Sound region. Others are visitors who join out of solidarity.
Patty Yates, a Twisp resident of Twisp for 45 years, has been at all but one protest this year. During the Aug. 23 protest, Yates was joined by her visiting children and grandchildren.
Yates said she wants Okanogan County residents to know what they’re losing through the cuts in legislation proposed by Trump and ultimately passed by the Republican-majority Congress. She also is concerned about the decreased access to abortion and depriving women of a choice for their bodies. “That whole thing gets me foaming,” she said.
Yates’ stepdaughter, Carly Lewis, was there with her two children, ages 9 and 7.
Lewis, who lives in Bothell, said she has brought her family to the protest during every visit this year. “I think it’s important for the younger generation to see they can have a voice and that local activism is just as important as national activism,” she said.
Multiple movements for a big county
Later that Saturday, another group of protesters gathered at a park in Tonasket, a city of 1,100 people about an hour from Twisp.
These protesters are affiliated with the Okanogan County chapter of Indivisible, a national effort to provide resources and guidance to help residents build grassroots civic movements. The group has been gathering weekly, both on Zoom and through protests.
Some participants have driven upward of an hour or more to get to the protest in Tonasket. The group has also staged protests in Brewster and Omak to cater to those living in other parts of the county.
(David Ryder for Cascade PBS)
“We have to speak up,” said Sandy Vaughn, co-organizer with Okanogan County Indivisible. “If we don’t speak up in this time, we are failing this nation.”
For co-organizer Shirl Kuchta, the protests are not about partisan politics —Trump’s policies are impacting residents of both parties, not just Democrats, she said. They are also impacting people in other parts of the world.
Kuchta said the protests provide a space for participants to be around others who share their concerns, and to gain more courage to stand up and speak out. “It gives people a place to focus their unease, their upset, their anger and their fear about what’s happening in this country,” she said.
Other civic efforts
While protests provide visibility, organizers encourage participants to engage in other types of civic action.
In Twisp, for example, attendees promoted other causes, such as a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen, which provides meals for Palestinians in Gaza.
Spohn said the Twisp group has worked with other civic groups in the Methow Valley that focus on other actions, such as writing letters. She’s also tried to keep in touch with other groups, including the Okanogan County Indivisible group in the Omak/Tonasket area.
For Rural People’s Voice, a civic advocacy organization working in Okanogan, Chelan and Douglas counties that formed in 2021, the work centers on getting the stories of the community in front of key policy- and decision-makers.
In early July, Rural People’s Voice staff and volunteers gathered at Three Rivers Hospital to voice concerns over the recently passed House Resolution 1, which included $990 billion in cuts over the next decade to Medicaid, the government-funded health care program, and to numerous other government services, such as nutrition and food programs for low-income residents.
For executive director Elana Mainer, it’s about expressing the urgency of taking programs from rural residents who have dealt with poverty for decades.
Mainer says that the rural communities her organization serves cannot afford further government funding cuts, and she believes it’s unfair that health care and nutrition programs are further cut while wealthy people receive more tax cuts. “It’s time for rural folks like us to have our fair share,” she said.
Mainer said the focus for her and her group has been on one-on-one engagement through door-knocking — the group knocked on thousands of doors last year. She believes there are opportunities to not only inform residents but get them involved in civic efforts, including running for office.
“There are so many natural leaders in mobile home parks, in apartment complexes, some of the things they do best is talk to their neighbors, talk to them about voting, what’s up with Medicaid [cuts], what’s up with health insurance.”
Engaging with differing views
But while community organizers and protesters throughout Okanogan County believe in showing resistance to Trump and policies being passed in Washington, D.C., they emphasize the importance of remaining in community with their neighbors, even those who support Trump.
In recent years, it has not been unusual for political viewpoints to drive people apart, but in a smaller community, that’s not an option, given frequent interactions with those with differing views.
Mainer said that in her work she finds that most rural residents, regardless of their political affiliation, want a lot of the same things, such as economic prosperity and health care. She said it’s most important to maintain relationships and encourage dialogue to find solutions. “It takes a constant work to stay connected and [show] we do care about each other,” she said.
The protest in Twisp underscored that struggle. While many drivers honked in support, at least two vehicles stopped and blew dirty exhaust into the protesters’ faces. Two high school boys circled the group in their scooters waiving a large Donald Trump flag. At times they would get aggressive, waving their middle fingers at the group.
But that didn’t faze the protesters, who were acquainted with the boys and their families.
A few of the protesters asked the boys to walk with their flag rather than create a safety issue by taking up the bike lane. The conversation occurred without escalation, and the two boys eventually parked their scooters and carried their Trump flag on foot.
“Even with counter-protesters, there [was] no aggression, no anger,” said Lewis, the visiting Bothell resident. “We’re protecting free speech, and everyone has a right to free speech.”
