In the Bay Area, Inauguration Day Can Mean Celebration or Call to Protest

For lifelong Republican Doris Gentry, a presidential inauguration is like being at a concert.

“You’re surrounded by like-minded people who are there for the same reason. They’re all cheering, chanting and jumping,” said Gentry, chair of the Napa County Republican Central Committee, who plans to be among hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, D.C., on Monday for the inauguration of Donald Trump’s second term as president.

Gentry, who also attended the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, said she is hopeful about the “America-first” approach that Trump has touted on the campaign trail. She said she supports some of his recent proposals to rename the Gulf of Mexico and to acquire Greenland — in what the president-elect has described as “economic security.”

“ Trump is an out-of-the-box thinker and extremely wise. So why do I want to go watch a man like that be installed as our next president? It’s just staggering,” Gentry said.

Jeff Burns, the chair of the Contra Costa Republican Party, also plans to be at Trump’s inauguration. He said this moment caps what he calls an “incredible year in politics” — which saw two attempted assassinations on Trump and the shift in the Democratic ticket from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re just excited to be back in D.C. for this. It’s going to be really an epic experience,” Burns said.

Like Gentry, Burns said this election, it felt more acceptable to be a Trump supporter in the Bay Area, typically a Democratic stronghold.

“ You’d get more people saying, ‘Hey, I didn’t want to say anything, but I agree,’ and ‘Thank you for saying something,’” Burns said. “Whereas before, there was a culture of ‘you have to stay completely underground.’”

Across all nine Bay Area counties, a higher percentage of voters cast their ballot for Donald Trump this election compared with last time Trump ran in 2020. The changes in the Bay Area between 2020 and 2024 are small — between a 1% and 4% increase in each county. But that’s also coupled with the fact that statewide voter turnout was much lower this election: 80% of registered voters voted in 2020, compared with 71% in 2024.

Paul Mitchell, a political data analyst and the vice president of Political Data Incorporated, said that percentage change in support for Trump isn’t necessarily an indication of more support for Republicans in the Bay Area.

“I think it’s kind of premature to jump to the conclusion of, ‘Oh, look, Republicans are gaining,’ in an instance where it might just be that a lot of Democrats were staying home,” he said.

Mitchell added that in the coming months, he and other political data analysts will be studying the numbers to determine whether some voters changed their attitudes and voted Republican this election or if the change is simply an indication that turnout among Democrats was lower.

As Bay Area Republicans hold watch parties to celebrate Trump’s inauguration, the region is expected to feel division — as several counter-demonstrations are planned throughout the MLK holiday weekend.

On Saturday, People’s Marches are happening across the Bay Area, from San José to Sebastopol, in solidarity with similar protests nationwide. On Sunday, a coalition of dozens of local groups made up of student organizations, unions, and civil rights groups have planned a San Francisco march, dubbed “We Fight Back.”

Organizers of Sunday’s march said they’re inaugurating a movement of their own.

“ This demonstration is not a one-off event. This is the inauguration of the ‘We Fight Back’ movements,” said organizer Luna Osleger-Montañez during a news conference Wednesday at San Francisco City Hall.

She and other organizers stressed that Sunday’s action marks the beginning of a long fight to resist various facets of Trump’s platform, like his promises of mass deportations and the removal of federal anti-discrimination policies aimed primarily at the LGBTQ+ community.

“ I think it’s a widespread feeling of the need to make sure some of the rhetoric of the campaign does not become a reality for our people,” said Natalie Hrizi, a representative of the teacher’s union for the San Francisco Unified School District.

Those promises of mass deportations have spurred fear for some in the Bay Area’s immigrant community, but organizers of Sunday’s march said they felt buoyed by the diversity and scale of the organizations that have pledged to participate.

“ The biggest feeling I’m going to have on Sunday is pride and optimism,” said Sanika Mahajan, the director of Community Engagement and Organizing at the nonprofit Mission Action. “ As much as they want us to have fear, as much as they want us to feel confused or siloed, we know that we have to be united in order to fight back, and so I’m excited to see that on Sunday.”