In Kamala Harris’ hometown, friends and supporters are holding their breath

On the eve of the US election, ITV News Presenter Julie Etchingham travels to California to speak to those who know Kamala Harris best
Words by ITV News Presenter Julie Etchingham and Specialist Producer Reshma Rumsey
Here, in San Francisco, on the eve of the one of the most consequential elections in living memory, those who know Kamala Harris best are holding their breath.
At the start of America’s election, her friends and supporters could have hardly have imagined she’d be thrown at such speed and short notice into the race of her life and on the brink of history.
For the members of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church they’ve done all they can, and now there is just hope and prayer left before the polls close.
A community rooted in the civil rights movement, Harris is one of their own. She has been coming here for 20 years – and the Reverend Dr Amos Brown is her pastor. It was him she turned to when she decided to run.
He told ITV News: “The telephone rang and she said ‘my pastor’ – this is what she always called me – ‘my pastor, I need you to pray for Doug, pray for me and pray for this nation. I have decided to run for president.”
Rev Brown will be with the Harris team on election night, and has a clear message for the nation.
“I would say to America, grow up, don’t be enslaved by chauvinism, misogyny, racism and materialism. It’s time for us to grow up, to be converted, and really be one nation,” he said.
The daughter of an Indian scientist and Jamaican academic, Harris grew up in the streets of Oakland, California.
After her parents’ divorce, Harris, her younger sister Maya and their mother Shyamala, lived across the street from Carole Porter, who was also her childhood friend.
Porter showed us around their neighbourhood, saying: “The lived just round the corner. Shyamala was a scientist and my mother was a nurse, they were working mothers and had a lot in common.”
Porter recalled how the area was a melting pot of cultures and backgrounds, adding: “It was like a mini UN. We all played together out on the streets people from all different backgrounds all trying to make a better life for themselves.”
Porter and Harris travelled together to their elementary school in the wealthier area of on the bus as part of a de-segregation programme.
They didn’t realise what they were part of at the time, but Berkeley was one of the first places to voluntarily de-segregate schools in the 70s.
“We would all meet on the bus and ride together. It was fun, we had no idea of what we were part of.
“Riding the bus, living in this area, which as mixed raced kids wasn’t always easy, has shaped us and has certainly shaped Kamala and her values.”
Porter has supported Harris’s ascent from district to attorney general – then to the Senate and vice presidency. Is this the moment Harris makes history?”The idea that potentially someone from here could be president the first woman president from these streets is to me, stunning,” Porter said.
“She is like family to me. We didn’t always get on, but we respected each other. She knows we are here for her. It’s emotional … because we come from the same place with the same values.”
San Francisco has long been a Democrat fortress and crucial for key politicians – not least the towering figure of Nancy Pelosi, who persuaded Joe Biden to stand aside from the election in July.
The party united behind her and she is now on a path to making history. But Harris’ record here as the state’s top prosecutor has divided opinion and made many people wary of her.
Her then controversial decision to crackdown on truancy saw her enact a law to prosecute parents over their children missing school – a law she says she now regrets.
The call caused uproar and her critics accused her of poor judgement and going after the wrong people.
While she was district attorney in San Francisco, she also refused to back the death penalty following a high profile fatal shooting of young police officer, Isaac Espinoza, 20 years ago.
She made the announcement but failed to speak to Espinoza’s widow to warn her. As a result, she faced a ferocious backlash alienating many in her own party. Police unions have never forgiven her.
Harris is a politician who is, for some, too hardline and for those on the left, her reforms didn’t go far enough. Meanwhile, the progressive bastion is too much for others.
But at Queer Diwali event in San Francisco, two supporters in told us for them there is only one candidate.
Natasha Vashist said: “I know that this is a great melting pot of cultures. I know for South Asian people especially it’s been a refuge and I would say having this mold of cultures is exactly what we need in office right now.”
Karan Chhabra said: “I would love to see a woman become the president. I come from a country which has already two women presidents and one female prime minister.”
Meanwhile, at a Democrat phone bank in the heart of San Francisco, volunteers are convinced of their powers of leverage beyond state lines.
They are calling voters in the neighbouring swing state of Nevada 200 miles away where the race couldn’t be tighter, to persuade them to make the journey the polls.
One exhausted volunteer told us: “We’ve been writing hundreds of letters, sending busloads of people to swing states. It’s exhausting but we’re so close, we’ve got to do it. Democracy is on the line and we have to get people to the polls”.
Across this vast divided nation – there is now choice between a West or a East Coast candidate as far apart in their politics as their hometowns. America’s tide of history awaits.
Want an expert briefing on US politics and the presidential race? Listen to our latest podcast Talking Politics USA