Understanding Persistence in the Resistance

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, large-scale protest events have taken place around the United States, with many of the biggest events being held in Washington, DC. The streets of the nation’s capital have been flooded with people marching about a diversity of progressive issues, including women’s rights, climate change, and gun violence. Although research has found that these events have mobilized a high proportion of repeat participants who come out again and again, limited research has focused on understanding differential participation in protest, especially during one cycle of contention. This article, accordingly, explores the patterns among the protest participants to understand differential participation and what we refer to as “persistence in the Resistance.” In it, we analyze a unique data set collected from surveys conducted with a field approximation of a random sample of protest participants at the largest protest events in Washington, DC, since the Resistance began at the 2017 Women’s March. Our findings provide insights into repeat protesters during this cycle of contention. The article concludes by discussing how our findings contribute to the research on differential participation.