'You want this for the world': For many in western Mass., day began with hopes of historic election
The last 24 hours has been a waiting game for both the Trump and the Harris campaigns — one that isn't quite over.
Kamala Harris planned to do some waiting Tuesday night at Howard University, her alma mater, a historically Black college in Washington.
At Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, one of the largest women's colleges in the country, students were also waiting — and many hoped for a historic win.
More than 50 students hunkered over laptops and phones, and watched results come in on the big screen at the campus center.
Helen De La Rosa is a freshman who voted for the first time in Texas, where her family lives, many of whom are immigrants from Mexico. De La Rosa said it's a historic election, no matter what.
"Gosh, yes," De La Rosa said. "I think just the fact that she's a woman of color running for president. And the fact that this race is super close ... and she is making history just by running."
But sitting at a nearby table, Sophia Manodori, a mathematical statistics major who voted for Harris in California, said — for her — it feels anti-climactic to potentially have the first female president.
"Considering the rest of the world has kind of moved on from that precedent and most other countries — especially with similar GDPs as us — have had female prime ministers already," Manodori said. "And so, it feels quite embarrassing, actually, that we're celebrating this so late in the game."
That may be so, but Harris' run has meant a lot to others — especially those who have been voting for decades.
At a results watch party hosted by the Unitarian Society in Northampton, 64-year-old Marisol Quintana sat next to her wife of 20 years. Quintana remembered that when they got married in California, then-District Attorney Kamala Harris performed some of the first same-sex marriages in the country.
"I remember being in City Hall," Quintana said. "I didn't see her, but just knowing that she was there, it was really powerful for me. It was just really beautiful. It was really beautiful for us, for my wife and I."
Quintana teared up explaining the connection to Harris.
"I just, I just I feel very proud of her, Quintana said. "You know, no matter what happens, I feel very proud of her.
It isn't only women who hoped this would be a historic election. Karl Ferret, 92, stood with his cane outside a Northampton polling place. He also wanted a Harris win.
"I don't know if she's Black or white or pink. I don't care what color she is," he said. "She's earned her way, where she is. And men of the world have screwed the world up. I think a woman will help bring us back."
On this question, there's actually a big divide. In Chicopee, Bernice Hafsaoui stood outside a polling place with a sign in support of former President Donald Trump. She was not interested in the historic nature of Harris' run.
"For being a woman? No. I go by the person who's smart, you know? I pity this country if she gets in. And we'll have a lot of wars and we will be a third-world country."
Some Harris supporters are also scared.
"I'm just frightened of more division, more hatred, more craziness [in a second Trump term]," said Jo Ella Tarbutton-Springfield, a 60-year-old Black woman in Northampton.
Tarbutton-Springfield said having a person who looks like her as vice president — and potentially president — is "monumental."
"You can't sleep at night because you want this so badly," she said. "You want this for the nation. You want this for the people. You want this for the country. You want this for the world."
