Both locals and out-of-town residents were among those who draped the Courthouse’s front lawn on Labor Day armed with signs, flags, and megaphones. Cindy Stemple, Chair of the Randolph County Democratic Executive Committee, said she was pleased with the participation in Monday’s event.

“We thought we had a really good turnout for a holiday, a lot of people are out of town during Labor Day, so we were really happy with how many came out,” Stemple said.

“We had some people from Pocahontas County and Lewis County come out for the rally and a bunch of new people who haven’t been out to any of the events we have had in the past. So we were very pleased about that as well.”

Flags were handed out to those in attendance and Stemple motorists driving by provided positive feedback.

Participants hold up signs during Monday’s ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ protest at the Randolph County Courthouse.

“A lot of people drove by and blew their horns to show support for what we were doing,” Stemple said. “And we had some great live music performed by the Ginsangers, who had a set list planned out for the entire event. They played music for about 40 minutes and then we had our main speaker, Nick Lennox, talk.

“Nick is on our executive committee and he is an Ascend member who moved here a couple years ago through the Ascend Program. He’s actually a Democratic political organizer, so he’s very familiar with what is happening in politics. He’s been a big help to us.”

The rally, which lasted for close to 90 minutes, was part of a nationwide protest across the country, featuring thousands of people turning out at locations in major cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New York.

“This was a nationwide call from Indivisible, which is a large organization that has chapters all over the country,” Stemple said. “A new group that has come into the spotlight since the election is called 5051 and they were also one of the organizing groups for the rally.

“What they try to do is get at least one rally or one action on the same day in all 50 states. I saw some photos from Washington DC, Chicago and some of the other major cities and it looked like there were some good turnouts.”

The Randolph County Democratic Executive Committee will hold its annual picnic at the Elkins City Park on Sept. 11 at 5 p.m.