Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris took the reins from President Joe Biden as the democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential elections, many democratic voters have shifted from a place of reluctance to a place of hope. Sherry Ellingson, of Pleasant Hill, is an Iranian-American life coach and the mother of two teenage daughters who couldn’t be more excited about Harris’ candidacy. “The fact that Kamala Harris stands for freedom around women’s rights to make decisions that allow them to care for themselves is so important,” Ellingson says. “I’ll feel much more secure knowing my daughters can make decisions about their bodies without government interference.” Regarding some of the disparaging comments GOP members have made about Harris’ readiness for the job and her racial identity, Ellingson hopes people simply tune them out. “Those are just noises to distract us from what is truly important,” Ellingson says. “It’s time for us to rise above that.” Kate Schatz, an Alameda-based feminist writer and co-author of Do the Work! An Antiracist Activity Book, writes about racism and sexism, and amplifies under-told stories about women. She’s organizing to get disenfranchised groups out to vote. Schatz undoubtedly vibes with Harris’ diehard commitment to protect women’s rights to choose their own reproductive healthcare and Walz’s “mind your own damn business” approach when it comes to governing women’s bodies. Schatz is finishing a novel inspired by the lived reproductive oppression her mother experienced when dealing with unplanned pregnancies. Although the story is six decades old, it’s proving to be relevant today as reproductive healthcare access comes under attack across the country. “My mother was one of the girls who was sent away in the 1960s when she had unexpected pregnancies,” Schatz says. “My book looks at what happened when the kind of sexual revolution, the Summer of Love and freedom of the late ’60s came up against the actual limitations of the choices women had.” Whether writing a fictionalized story about forced pregnancy and adoption without consent or true stories about trailblazers throughout time, Schatz believes the written word has the power to make an impact. “Giving voice to people’s stories and lived experiences that have been silenced, left in the shadows or repressed is an act of radical transformation,” she says. “One of the reasons that I write so much about history is because I think it helps ground us in our present moment and understand how to make better choices for our future.” Myrna Santiago, of El Cerrito, is a historian, a professor and the author of The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1938. When asked how she feels about the forthcoming election, Santiago sighs heavily. “Like a lot of people who are paying attention, I do believe that democracy is at risk,” she says. “The election of Trump, if it happens, is going to cause disruptions that we can’t even imagine right now. It’s a slippery slope towards facism, which is not a word that, as a historian, I use lightly or often.” During the March primaries, Santiago wrote in the words “Cease Fire” on the presidential section of the ballot, with a plan to reluctantly vote for Biden during the November election because she saw him as the lesser of the two evils. Santiago is cautiously optimistic about the electability of Harris, who she will cast her vote for in November, but she doesn’t think Americans should expect drastic changes with Harris as a leader. “We need to elect Harris, because the alternative would be too risky,” Santiago says. “But we will need to continue to pressure her to do the right thing when it comes to war, the environment and immigration policies once she’s in office.” The real issue, Santiago says, is our two-party system.  “We need a third party and a fourth one. We need a democracy that reflects the diversity of opinions in this country,” Santiago says. “I honestly don’t know what it is going to take to break the hold that the two-party system has on this country, which on many issues feels like two sides of the same coin.” Regardless of who arrives in the presidential office next, Santiago says she plans to keep doing what she’s dedicated her professional life to—teaching. “My plan is to do what I’ve always done, which is to teach young people to be critical thinkers, as opposed to state ideology and whatever they hear from the powers that be,” she says. “What gives me hope is the fact that despite the machinery of power deployed by the U.S. government, young people aren’t buying it. That tells me there is critical thinking going on.” A Lebanese-born Palestinian woman named Nadine who declined to share her last name says she voted for Cornell West during the primary and she’ll do the same thing during the general election. Nadine tears up when asked how she feels about the state of affairs and foreign policy in the United States today, but manages to smile when asked about what gives her hope.  “The love, the spirituality, the faith of people who don’t give up. It’s beautiful,” Nadine says. In terms of what she’d say to lawmakers if she had their ear, she says: “Wake up. Do the right thing.” W. Kamau Bell, comedian and co-author of Do the Work!, says that no matter how disenfranchised or disempowered people feel, it’s important they stay active and show up at polling stations later this year. “America is going through a sea change. A very small percentage of that is voting, and most of it is about the work you do every day,” Bell says. Not ironically, the book Bell and Schatz authored is an activity book set up with games, mazes and hands-on ways to challenge racism. “I try to look to the people who are doing bigger, more powerful work than I can do and use that as an example to do what I can do,” Bell says. “America was allegedly built on supporting people’s freedom and liberty. We need to decide what side of history we’re going to be on.”  Come November, Bell urges everyone to get out and vote regardless of how they feel about the names at the top of the ballot. “There’s a lot more critical voting for you in the local races in your community, where you can influence decisions that are about your community’s lives, livelihood and lived experience,” Bell says. “The power is in local elections, local committee races and city council. Those are the people who can impact the fate of your city for the good or for the worse. And while you’re at the polls, pick a president.” And why should East Bayers, Americans and everyone think about race, gender and other aspects of identity in tandem, when considering the politics of everyday life? “My platform is not for preaching, but for pointing people in the right direction,” Bell says. “Professor Kimberly Crenshaw is credited with intersectionality. These identities work in tandem. They don’t work separately. So why would we not look at them together?”