As the polls closed Tuesday night, Connecticut residents around the state congregated in groups large and small to watch as the results rolled in. They gathered in churches, homes, bars and social clubs, waiting alongside the rest of the country to learn the results of a highly polarized presidential election. This year’s historic election season saw an assassination attempt on the Republican candidate, a late change to the Democratic ticket and rising anxiety across the political spectrum. While Connecticut is likely to be called early in the evening for Vice President Kamala Harris, both candidates’ supporters tuned in to national broadcasts tracking the results in states where the outcome wasn’t as predictable. The Connecticut Mirror is spending the evening with two groups of those voters and will be updating this story with what we saw and heard as the night progresses. State Senate candidate Chris Carrena speaks to his daughter as his campaign manager Michele Gregorio fixes his bouttonière before his election watch party in Monroe. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror 8:05 p.m., Monroe The Monroe house filled gradually as the minutes ticked by to the close of Connecticut’s polls. Chris Carrena, the Republican state senate candidate in the 22nd District, and his supporters chatted while a live stream of Fox news played projected on a wall. Carrena wore a maroon suit and fielded calls from family in Florida as well as local supporters. He’s running on a platform focused on affordability, crime reduction and education equity, he said. Even as numbers from Carrena’s race trickled in, the presidential race loomed large in the house. Elizabeth Carrena, the mother of the candidate, said she’d spent the day out at the polls talking to voters. She heard from lots of young people, particularly men, who were worried about border security, she said. “The same themes came up over and over again,” she said. “It was young families just trying to make it.” The room grew quiet as the Fox anchor announced early results — that the electoral college was split 23-3 in favor of former President Donald Trump. 8:05 p.m., Bridgeport In the basement hall of Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport, community members gathered and greeted each other as large foil containers of food were being set out on tables near a back kitchen. People checked their phones and gently inquired of each other whether any states had yet been called.  The event was co-hosted by FaithActs for Education, a faith-based education advocacy nonprofit, and local chapters of several historically Black fraternities and sororities — including that of Vice President Kamala Harris, Alpha Kappa Alpha (A.K.A.). Jamilah Prince-Stewart, executive director of FaithActs and an A.K.A. sister, said it was important to her to spend the evening “in community” as the election results started rolling in. “This country is deeply polarized and deeply divided, and as a people, we have to figure out how to pick up the pieces after tonight,” she said.  “I want to do that with people who see my humanity and see me as a whole person tonight,” Prince-Stewart said. “If I want to dance, I want to dance. If I want to cry, I want to cry. If I want to go to sleep, I want to go to sleep, but I don’t want to be judged by that. I just want to be able to shed the layers, not have my walls up, and just be myself — however that version of me appears.” Jamilah Prince-Stewart, standing, worked the FaithActs phone bank in Hamden Tuesday before polls closed. Credit: Erica Phillips Prince-Stewart grew up in New Haven, attended Yale University, where she joined A.K.A., and is now raising three children in the same community. The first presidential election she voted in was 2008, when Barack Obama won the race, becoming the first Black president of the United States. Prince-Stewart recalled voting with her grandmother that day, and knocking on doors in New Haven to encourage other people to get to the polls. “There was just a lot of momentum in 2008,” she said. “Something happened that people thought wasn’t possible in their lifetime.” This year isn’t entirely different, she said. “Energy shifts, but people’s reality don’t.” After a day spent phone-banking in Hamden with dozens of FaithActs volunteers, from teenagers to elderly aunts, Prince-Stewart said she was “feeling really good.” Doing the work of encouraging people to vote and helping them get there sustains her, she said. “It’s like soul food.” 8:51 p.m., Monroe When Chris Pettinella entered the party, his eyes immediately went to the screen.  “This is what I like to see,” Pettinella said, pointing at the Florida results, soon after the state had been called for Trump. Pettinella, a senior at Trumbull High School and one of the administrators of the Connecticut for Trump Facebook group, spent much of his day campaigning for Carrena. Chris Pettinella, a senior at Trumbull High School and administrator of the Connecticut for Trump group, watches results come in at a watch party in Monroe on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Credit: Ginny Monk / CT Mirror The mood in the room was elevated as Trump pulled ahead early in the night, before many states’ polls had closed. Although Connecticut was quickly called for Harris, the group brushed it off. They expected those results in their blue state. But, Pettinella noted, looking at the local results, “If Trump wins Trumbull, it’s going to drive them insane.” Pettinella is 17 and can’t yet vote. But he said he’s liked Trump for years, and thinks of him as a businessman rather than a politician. He’s also worried about inflation and border security. He thinks Trump can bring about change. “Illegal immigrants run wild here,” he said at a Sunday rally for Trump in Trumbull. 8:55 p.m., Bridgeport The room was buzzing by the time Pastor William McCullough took the stage, exuding positive energy as he welcomed people to the watch party at Mount Aery Baptist. “I smell victory in the air!” he bellowed. “I think I also smell some food, too,” he laughed. Rev. William McCullough (left) watching returns at Tuesday’s election watch party at Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror McCullough founded FaithActs for Education in 2015 and also serves as reverend at Russell Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Bridgeport’s east end. After making the rounds to greet people at each table, he sat down for an interview.  “I think Senator Raphael Warnock said it best,” he said, “our vote is a kind of prayer about the kind of world we want to live in. So as a people of faith, we want to just make sure that our people are voting.” As an education advocate, McCullough said he sees this election as a beginning of sorts. Whoever wins in tonight’s local, state and national contests, he said, “We need to hold folks accountable.” 9:30 p.m., Monroe While the folks at Carrena’s watch party sipped beers, munched on pizza slices and waited anxiously for local results to come in, the Fox News live stream of the national race kept people hopeful. Results from Bridgeport for Carrena’s race were delayed, and it’s a big district. Gregorio, his campaign manager, stepped out to make a call and figure out what’s going on. She reported that there was a problem with a machine.  Campaign manager Michele Gregorio watches local results come in while national news coverage plays in the background. Gregorio is working on the campaign for Chris Carrena, a Republican candidate for State Senate. Credit: Ginny Monk / CT Mirror One attendee noted that the New York Times’ election needle projected a Trump win “and it’s a biased news outlet.” “Woo! Are they giving us a little bit of hope here or what? That’s big,” Monroe First Selectman Terrence Rooney said as a Fox analyst announced that Pennsylvania was “tightening up.” 9:32 p.m., Bridgeport Anthony Bennett, lead pastor at Mount Aery Baptist Church, said he was feeling “soberly optimistic” about Kamala Harris winning the presidency. “Even if she wins, this is a really divided country,” Bennett said.  Bennett recalled Election Night in 2008, when nearly 200 members of the Mount Aery congregation gathered in the same church basement to watch as the U.S. elected its first Black president. A projector in the main hall had stopped working and the only television was in a daycare classroom in a far corner of the basement. Nearly everyone was crowded into the hallway trying to hear the results when, around 11:30 or 12:00, the race was called. This time around, things are different, Bennett said. “I don’t think anybody would say, if she’s elected, that we’re now post-racial, as we did — as some people did — when Obama was elected.” Mount Aery Baptist Church lead pastor Anthony Bennett (second from left) speaks with congregants at an Election Night watch party on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror As elderly congregants bid him goodnight, and children’s squeals reached a higher pitch in the banquet hall, Bennett contemplated what a Harris presidency might mean for his community, where he has pastored for 30 years. “I think the symbolism and the substance of Vice President Kamala Harris being elected will stir the nest of racial animus. It already is,” he said. “But for me, that has been the struggle of Black and brown people in America since we’ve been here.” “Someone said on the news that former president Trump can be lawless, but Vice President Kamala Harris has to be flawless.” 10:15 p.m., Bridgeport The church watch party had thinned out enough that Steve Kornacki’s voice from the television was audible. Trump’s electoral vote count had reached 198, while Harris was at 109. Prince-Stewart said, simply, that she was “tired.” Duanecia Clark, who runs strategy and communications for FaithActs, said she was feeling “anxious,” but she was pleased with how the event had turned out. Of the more-than 100 people who came for dinner and fellowship, Clark said many told her they were just happy to be together. “This is working,” she said. “We still live to fight another day.” Christelle Ramos and Jaria Aljoe, A.K.A. sorority sisters, were subdued as they headed for the stairs. “A lot of the numbers now are a little bit scary, but I’m also taking note of the fine print that it’s only, like, 16% counted.” Added Aljoe: “I think the wise thing to do is still be hopeful and just wait until that final decision has been made. And then, based on that decision, whatever that is, continue to move forward.” 11:09 p.m., Monroe The Monroe crowd had dispersed slightly, but spirits were still running high. Chris Carrena said goodnight to his 4-year-old daughter, Ava, who spent the evening playing with a Little People princess castle. “Can you say ‘Carrena for Senate,” he asked, kissing her cheek. “Carrena for Senate,” she said in a small voice. Although Carrena was still waiting for results in his race, attention was on the presidential election. “They’re all red,” Pettinella said, scrolling through Associated Press results on his phone. “All the swing states look red.” People chatted about the nuances of how voting in different states works and the likelihood of a Trump presidency. They refreshed results on their phones and eagerly watched the Fox News projections. Carrena said he felt good about Trump winning the presidential election, but was hesitant to say anything definitively. “I feel good until I have a reason not to feel good,” he said.