At 9:15 Tuesday night, under fluorescent lights and multiple MSNBC projections, the crowd at the SF Dems party on Market Street let loose a primal scream. They were rapidly realizing that former President Donald Trump had a high likelihood of becoming president again.
After the stress-releasing roar reverberated through the former Downtown Nordstrom Rack, City Attorney David Chiu instructed everyone to tell the person next to them that they were beautiful.
Chiu and a slate of speakers, including the soon-to-be reelected Assemblymember Matt Haney and state Sen. Scott Wiener, were hard-pressed to calm or cheer the evening’s attendees.
“We’re all anxious, but this is not over yet,” Wiener said.
Onlookers didn’t appear to have the same confidence.
Despite there being several swing states yet to call and millions of votes yet to count, a palpable sense of dread permeated the room — as it did within concert halls, cafés, street corners, and watch parties all over deep-blue San Francisco. Though early returns showed Vice President Kamala Harris garnering 80% of the city vote, she was getting trounced in almost all the places it mattered.
“I’m nervous eating,” Tri Tan said, gesturing to his heaping plate of Indian food. “I’m anxious. I’m very emotional.”
“I’m very nervous — it’s a lot closer than I was expecting,” said Thom Davies, an attendee at Democratic headquarters who, as a green card holder, couldn’t vote himself. “I was holding out hope for a surprise landslide.”
He said he worries how a Trump presidency could affect Western liberalism.
Amid his campaign party at Bimbo’s 365 Club in North Beach, mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin took a long pause after being asked for his reaction to The New York Times prediction around 8 p.m. that Trump would return to the White House.
“I’m speechless,” he said at last. “It is going to make it much, much harder for every city in America to provide for our people. I would much rather I lost and Kamala Harris won, but based on what The New York Times is saying, it looks like it will be the opposite.” (Early returns in the mayor’s race didn’t look promising for Peskin either.)
The longtime city legislator said San Francisco and California would have to join forces with other cities and states to push back against the executive branch, and that Trump’s policies would have an outsize impact on poor and homeless people.
“The best defense is a coordinated offense,” he said. “But it’ll make our ability to govern much harder.”
Coming to grips
“So, how ya feelin’?” was a common droll refrain at election watch parties across San Francisco. “Not great,” was the common retort.
Sporting a T-shirt that reads “Divorce your Republican husband,” Lily Contino sat anxiously watching the results roll in around 9 p.m. at District 3 Supervisor candidate Sharon Lai’s watch party at Harbor View Restaurant and Bar.
“I’m trying not to freak out,” she said. “Anything could happen. It would be a sad day for everyone, including trans people, if Harris loses.”
“I’m really trying not to think about it because I might start to cry if I do,” said Lai, who was also trailing in early results for her race. “I have trauma from 2016. I had just had my second son, and I was still very hormonal when the election results came in and I just remember bawling my eyes out. It’s a little triggering.”
Meanwhile, just a mile away, the mood at the SF GOP party in North Beach turned from cautiously optimistic to outright jovial.
“The Democrats are freaking out,” said Assembly candidate Manuel Noris-Barrera, who was looking likely to lose his race against Matt Haney, but nevertheless basked in the applause and cheers. “Donald Trump is going to be president and we’re going to celebrate tonight.”
Yvette Corkrean, a likely loser in her state Senate run against Scott Wiener, claimed her opponent is “not very kind to our family and kids,” which drew sneers from the crowd. One heckler yelled that Wiener is a “pervert.”
“That’s not very nice,” Cockrean responded. “But with that attitude, we can defeat him together.”
At El Chato, a popular Spanish wine bar in the Mission, co-owner Erin Rickenbaker tried to create “good election vibes” for the bar’s watch party, freely pouring listán negro and caiño longo.
But as the night wore on, the vibe shifted.
“What I’ve heard mostly is that people have been dissociating and today are starting to freak out,” she said.
The only remaining path was clear: Drown your election woes, or go home.
With his state Senate reelection all but wrapped up, Wiener was thrust into the role of group therapist for the forlorn Harris supporters at the SF Dems party.
“Let’s just take a deep breath,” he told them as the tide turned gradually toward Trump.
“It is not over, but I also just want to say, first of all, regardless of who wins — we know this just from the last few years, when we had a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate— we still have had to fight like crazy to protect our fundamental rights,” he said. “And so no matter who’s in control, we have to be prepared to fight. And if, God forbid, the worst happens tonight, let me tell you: We’ve seen this and gone through this before.”
