Hope and anxiety grip voters in Kamala Harris' Bay Area haunts

Susie Newton reacts at an election watch party at Manny's in San Francisco on election night

, Alana Minkler, Daniel Hennessy and Amaray Alvarez

Nov. 5, 2024 Updated 8:52 PM PT

BERKELEY — Outside a modest yellow bungalow in West Berkeley, some dealt with their election day anxiety by making a pilgrimage to Kamala Harris’ childhood home to snap selfies, hoping they would turn into treasured memories of the day the nation elected its first female president.

“We’re very proud,” said Diana Shapiro, 53, who lives about a block away from the apartment where Harris spent part of her childhood. Shapiro’s front yard is adorned with Harris posters; inside her living room is a framed portrait of the vice president. Shapiro predicted the neighborhood, nicknamed “Poet’s Corner,” would erupt into a spontaneous street party if Harris wins. “It would be amazing to have our first woman president,” she said.

But first, she had to wait. As the sun set on election day, people across the country seemed to be holding their breath. They were waiting for the polls to close, so the election results could start to come in. Waiting to find out, after one of the wildest and most expensive political campaigns in American history, who would be president.

Berkeley, CA - October 09: Thousand Oaks Elementary School students walk pas

Perhaps nowhere in the country was this waiting more acute — or the excitement and anxiety higher — than in the Bay Area.

Would the hometown girl make good? Would Harris, a self-proclaimed “daughter of Oakland” 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, win the highest office in the land?

A photograph of Kamala Harris, Maya Harris and their mother Shyamala Gopalan featu

Joanie McBrien, 59, who lives near the yellow house where Harris once did, said she had headed out into the streets to try to walk off her anxiety. “It’s just too stressful,” she said. “It’s a close race and who knows what will happen.”

Others came to mark the history. Phil Hackermann, 29, and Sarah Ball, 28, rode their bikes down from UC Berkeley to take photos to send to family in Germany.

“I thought, ‘We need to take a picture and send it back home,’ because everyone in Germany is just super interested in what’s going on here,” Ball said, adding, “We are all terrified of [Donald] Trump,” particularly some of his foreign policy statements about NATO and the war in Ukraine.

Others in the Democratic stronghold of the Bay Area, however, decided to throw caution to the wind and start partying early.

Across the Bay Bridge at John’s Grill in downtown San Francisco, streets were closed off and already mobbed by early afternoon with folks crowding in for the restaurant’s traditional election day lunch. The George Washington High School Marching Band played, and long-time San Francisco politicos, dressed in their election day best, worked the crowd and posed for photos.

“She won,” insisted former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, an early mentor to Harris (and briefly, a romantic partner). Though polls were still open for nearly eight more hours, Brown, sporting a stylish maroon suit and a top hat, said he was so confident of the result that he was “referring to this as the first celebration of her victory.”

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown speaks outside John's Grill in San Francisco,

Nearby, Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s — a restaurant and civic gathering space in the city’s Mission District — was buzzing around showing off his “patriotic nails” painted red white and blue and festooned with glitter. “I’m very excited to have Kamala Harris as my next president,” he said, adding that he was certain it would be “the beginning of a whole new moment in history for our country.”

So fervid was the excitement that many local news sites published guides to public election parties, where Bay Area residents could go celebrate or — though no one would dare say it — mourn the results.

In Oakland, many voters walked out of polling stations saying they felt the weight of history.

“Kamala’s a woman of color, and from Oakland,” said Sophia Lewis, 24. While Lewis had some criticisms of Harris’ policies, she said she far preferred her to Trump. “A lot of people are feeling prideful.”

Dropping off his ballot in Oakland, Kasper Dilmaghani, 35, said even thinking about having voted for a Black woman from Oakland for president was awe inspiring. “I’m getting chills,” he said.

People get manicures outside an election watch party at Manny's in San Francisco.

As polls closed across the country, people crowded into Manny’s. They were greeted by drag queens and cotton candy and drinks with names like “Kamala Katala” — a mixture of piña colada mix, pineapple juice and soju.

Even as the number of electoral votes in Trump’s column surged, many at the party said they were determined to remain optimistic. To keep spirits high, Yekutiel began instituting “dance breaks,” when people could stop watching the results and dance it out. Some people shouted choice words for the results in red states.

“I didn’t want to just sit at home and wallow in my fear,” said Isabella Madruga, 22, who was sipping a Kamala Katala. “I wanted to be here and listen to the news with other people.”

Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report, as did special correspondents Ruchi Shahagadkar, Neha Gopal, I-Yun Chan, Raymond Matthews and Aisha Wallace-Palomares.

Hope and anxiety grip voters in Kamala Harris’ Bay Area haunts

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