'Win big' High hopes for Harris in her Bay home town

s the extremely divisive election over who will next lead the US wrapped up, California's Bay Area was enveloped in a quiet calm. Far from the massive political rallies and the rousing rhetoric that has overtaken battleground states, many voters here are decided; the communities to the east of San Francisco were among the counties that voted most strongly for Joe Biden in 2020, and they will show up again hoping to defeat Donald Trump.

- Gabrielle Canon

Even so, some ballots in Oakland and Berkeley will be cast with an extra sense of pride. In the towns where Kamala Harris was born and raised, locals are hopeful their home-town hero will make history.

"Words cannot express how excited I am for Kamala Harris to become the first woman president, the first black woman president and the first south Asian woman president," said one Oakland resident, Kim Thompson. "She will also be the first president from Oakland, California."

Not all voters in the mid-sized cities that hug the shores of the San Francisco Bay are aware that the Democratic nominee got her start there. But as the self-proclaimed "daughter of Oakland", Harris staged her campaign around her connection to the area, claiming with pride the diverse city that is steeped in cultural and political history.

Those were also the attributes that drew Thompson to lay down roots and raise her family in Oakland after moving there in 1987. As a black woman and a lawyer who is deeply connected to civic life in the city, she delights in its ties to a potentially historic moment should Harris be elected.