BERKELEY- Outside a modest yellow bungalow in West Berkeley, some coped with their Election Day anxiety by making a pilgrimage to Kamala Harris’ childhood home to take selfies, hoping they would turn into treasured memories of the day the country elected its first female president.
“We’re very proud,” said Diana Shapiro, 53, who lives about a block from the apartment where Harris spent part of her childhood. Shapiro’s front yard is decorated with Harris posters; in his living room is a framed portrait of the vice president. Shapiro predicted that the area, nicknamed “Poets’ Corner,” would erupt into a spontaneous street party if Harris won. “It would be great to have our first female president,” she said.
But first, she had to wait. As the sun set on Election Day, citizens across the country seemed to hold their breath. They were waiting for the polls to close so that the election results could begin to come in. They were waiting to find out, after one of the craziest and costliest political campaigns in American history, who would be president.
Thousand Oaks Elementary School students walked past a mural depicting prominent women and Vice President Kamala Harris, an alumna of the school, last month in Berkeley.
(Peter DaSilva / For Time)
Perhaps nowhere in the country was this expectation more acute — nor the excitement and anxiety greater — than in the Bay Area.
Would the hometown girl make it? Kamala Harris, a self-described “Oakland girl” who spent part of her childhood in Berkeley and launched her political career with an underdog triumph in the 2003 race for San Francisco district attorney, would win the highest office in the country?
A photograph of Kamala Harris, Maya Harris and their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, featured in Kamala Harris’ book “The Truths We Hold.”
(Courtesy of Kamala Harris)
Another Poet’s Corner neighbor, Joanie McBrien, 59, said she had taken to the streets to try to overcome her anxiety. “It’s just too stressful,” she said. “It’s a close race and who knows what will happen.”
Others in the Bay Area’s Democratic stronghold, however, decided to err on the side of caution and start partying early.
Across the Bay Bridge at John’s Grill in downtown San Francisco, the streets were closed and already crowded by early afternoon with Election Day celebrants flocking to lunch traditional election day restaurant. The George Washington High School Marching Band played, and longtime San Francisco politicians, dressed in their Election Day best, worked the crowd and posed for photos.
“She won,” insisted former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, one of Harris’ early mentors (and briefly, a romantic partner). Although polls were still open for nearly eight hours, Brown, sporting a smart brown suit and top hat, said he was so confident in the outcome that he “referred to it as the first celebration of his victory.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown speaks outside John’s Grill in San Francisco in 2023.
(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
Nearby, Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s, a restaurant and civic gathering space in the city’s Mission District, buzzed as he showed off his “patriotic nails” painted red, white and blue and festooned with glitter. “I am very happy to have Kamala Harris as our next president,” he said, saying he was certain that it would be “the beginning of a whole new moment in the history of our country.”
Enthusiasm was so high that many local news sites published guides for public election parties, where Bay Area residents could go to celebrate or – although no one would dare say it – mourn the results.
In Oakland, many voters left polling places saying they felt the weight of history.
“Kamala is a woman of color and from Oakland,” said Sophia Lewis, 24. Although Lewis had some criticism of Harris’s policies, she said she much preferred her to Trump. “A lot of people feel proud.”
Casting his ballot in Oakland, Kasper Dilmaghani, 35, said even thinking about having voted for a black woman from Oakland for president was impressive. “I have chills,” he said.
Times Staff Writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.
