Women’s March holding first post-Trump event this weekend

The Women’s March on Saturday will hold its first rally since former President TrumpDonald TrumpNigerian president to lift Twitter ban if certain conditions are met Grisham calls Kushner ‘Rasputin in a slim-fitting suit’ Federal court orders FEC to rule on NRA shell entity campaign allegation MORE left office, signaling a new era for the organization that was one of the largest movements to oppose Trump. 

Saturday’s march will take place in a number of cities, with the headlining march happening in Washington, D.C., and 650 sister marches simultaneously taking place in 610 cities. According to a memo sent out by the group on Thursday, 240,348 people have pledged to participate in the nationwide event. 

The event is meant to voice opposition to the near-total ban on abortion in Texas and raise awareness about “abortion justice” as the Supreme Court prepares to reconvene on Monday. 

But the event also marks a new era for the march as organizers push for liberal ideals in a post-Trump world. 

“The strategy after the march is really where the magic happens,” said former North Carolina Democratic state House candidate Aimy Steele, who has been involved in past Women’s Marches. 

The group was seen as one of the largest grassroots resistance forces against the Trump administration, spearheading a number of demonstrations against the former president’s immigration policies and against Supreme Court Justice Brett KavanaughBrett Michael KavanaughKavanaugh tests positive for COVID-19, has no symptoms Graham tries to help Trump and McConnell bury the hatchet Republicans keep distance from ‘Justice for J6’ rally MORE’s appointment to the court after sexual assault allegations. 

This year’s march is taking place as abortion rights groups across the country are sounding the alarm over the future of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalizes abortion, amid backlash against the Texas law and ahead of December Supreme Court hearing on a Mississippi law that bans the procedure after 15 weeks. 

“The work continues and is, in fact, more urgent for more people, including women and other people who can get pregnant, than it’s ever been,” said Women’s March executive director Rachel O’Leary Carmona. “There were a lot of people that asked us after Donald Trump left office and said ‘well what are you all going to do now?’ and many of those were also the same people who said ‘oh you’re hysterical, Roe will never get overturned.” 

The rally is also the first Women’s March to take place amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted women across the board.

It comes just over a year ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and stands to have a major influence on the candidates that will run up and down the ballot. The first women’s march which took place a day after Trump’s inauguration was seen as a catalyst for the record number of liberal and Democratic women who ran for office in…