Everything except the spirits at SoWa Power Station was blue early on election night, as it hosted a watch party event for the Massachusetts Democratic Party. 

The event featured speeches from prominent Democratic leaders, including Elizabeth Warren—appearing fresh off her reelection to a third term in the United States Senate—and boasted a crowd of hundreds of local Democrats.

The crowd filed under floor-to-ceiling banners expressing their support for Warren as the first polls across the country closed at 7 p.m. and erupted into cheers as the CNN broadcast announced the first state calls for Harris, Warren’s decisive victory over Republican challenger John Deaton, and the re-election of Sen. Bernie Sanders in Vermont.

Many attendees expressed their hope for the upcoming night.

“I’m feeling a lot more optimistic in the past day or two than I have been recently,” said Brady Reynolds, a sophomore visual media arts major from Emerson at the event.

Brian Corr, another attendee, drove straight down to Boston after voting in New Hampshire to watch the event.

“For me, it’s always important to be with my community,” Corr said. “We’ve been working so hard on this for so long that I wouldn’t want to be any place else.”

Minutes later, Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair Steve Kerrigan took to the podium in front of a massive American flag to deliver brief remarks highlighting the work of the state party. He emphasized the party’s mobilization of grassroots efforts around the country in support of Kamala Harris and other Democratic nominees. 

“The unwavering, shakable, indefatigable work of the Massachusetts Democratic Party has left a mark on this election and in our future,” Harrigan said. He also shouted out the efforts of Gov. Maura Healey. Healey did not attend the event, remaining in her native New Hampshire to continue campaigning on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joyce Craig, who later lost her race to Kelly Ayotte that night.

Next to take the stage were Lieutenant Gov. Kim Driscoll and State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. They spoke coming off the heels of the approval of ballot Question 1 in Mass., which now allows her to investigate the state legislature.

Following their remarks, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addressed the crowd.

“I know we are all feeling that sense of waiting to see what the rest of the country does,” Wu said. “But for this moment, for this evening, I just want to say there’s one thing that’s clear: Massachusetts and Boston have made our voices heard.”

Then, State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg took the podium while results and live stream feeds remained off inside the event as speakers were onstage. More state calls came in, including Arkansas and Florida for Donald Trump and Illinois, Delaware, and New Jersey for Harris, as more officials spoke.

“I am telling you we made a difference. I have never felt more optimistic in my life,” Goldberg said, before leading the crowd in a chant of “When we fight, WE WIN!”

Goldberg passed the mic to Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch, who energized the crowd with a speech about the alignment between the Labor Movement and the Democratic Party, specifically against the policy positions of the Republican agenda on abortion access and climate change.

“The labor movement is the glue within the Democratic Party that … unites us around the common goals we all dream on as working people,” Lynch said. “But those values don’t become a reality by chance or simply because we wish them to.”

Lynch said that Massachusetts Union members completed thousands of volunteer shifts in getting-out-the-vote campaigns in battleground states ahead of the election.

“It’s why we have spent the last year on the phones, on the doors, at local union meetings, and on the job sites, and talking to our union members about how much is at stake in this election,” she added.

The crowd, which had remained spread out near catering stations, began to press toward the stage as Rep. Ayanna Pressley climbed the stage to the sound of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.

“The women of this nation who came before us found a way generation after generation to make it work. And that is the American way. It’s as American as a recipe for four stretched-to-feed six,” Pressley said as the crowd cheered loudly.

Pressley reflected on the history and work of figures like Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president in the United States and to be elected to Congress. Pressley said that set the stage for her election in the House of Representatives and the impending possibility of a Black female presidential candidate being elected in the coming hours.

“On the night she launched her campaign … Chisholm stated, ‘I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of a woman’s movement of this country although I am a woman and equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people,’” Pressley said. “A candidate of the people, well Massachusetts 56 years later to the day we stand here poised to elect Kamala Harris for the people.”

Pressley continued by expressing hope and confidence in the results of the ongoing election. Her remarks were followed by remarks from Sen. Ed Markey, who championed the state’s all-democratic congressional delegation.

“This country couldn’t do Democratic politics without Massachusetts Democrats,” Markey said, calling the state “the Democratic power station,” whose people are “the greatest renewable energy resource in the United States of America.”

Markey praised Warren and Pressley’s political records and the state’s history of support for progressive policies. He also highlighted his hopes for the future of the country under democratic leadership from the creation of universal healthcare to immigration reform to expanding gun control, reproductive rights, and climate action.

“The future of our planet is at stake and democracy is on the ballot and since MAGA had its hateful project 2025, we had our own project 2024, and their names are Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris,” Markey said. “And tonight, we are gonna make that come to pass.”

Just a little over an hour after her reelection, Warren took the stage to address her supporters.

“12 years ago, lots of experts in insiders said Massachusetts would never elect a woman to the United States Senate … And we taught ourselves that no matter the odds stacked against you, it’s always worth it to get in the fight,” Warren said. 

She first touted her record in the Senate from helping lower the cost of insulin to helping create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a regulatory body for banks and credit unions Warren said has helped return over $20 billion to consumers.

“Every one of these accomplishments is living proof that we can make government work for people,” Warren told the crowd.
”So here’s my message to the voters of Massachusetts. My name was on the ballot, but this election is about you and the work we still need to do.”

Warren pledged to raise wages for childcare workers, lower the cost of homeownership, continue to forgive student debt, and help expand abortion access nationwide.

She also made a pledge to help end the war in Gaza. This followed a moment after Markey’s preceding speech where a pro-Palestinian protester holding a sign calling for an arms embargo against Israel approached the stage and was soon after removed by security.

“We cannot send American bombs to kill civilians in the Middle East,” Warren said. “We must push the parties toward a two-state solution with safety, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and Israelis. I will do everything in my power to bring an end to this war.”

Warren also reflected on the historic presidential race which remained too close to call during the event and the hope, shared by the room, for the election of the first Black female president.

Warren concluded her speech by expressing both relief at her re-election and an acknowledgment of work to be done.

“It’s going to be a long night and maybe even a long week, but no matter what happens, we are ready for the work ahead,” Warren said. “So tonight, rest up, drink up, but tomorrow, we’ll be ready to get back in the fight and I’m in this fight all the way.”

As Warren exited the stage blue confetti streams rained down on the audience. 

Angus Abercrombie, a junior politician communications major and chair of the Greater Boston Young Democrats reflected favorably on Warren’s speech.

“I think [the event is] a monument to the success of Elizabeth Warren here in Massachusetts,” Abercrombie said. “She is running the exact kinds of policies and campaigns that represent the majority viewpoint here.”

Cooper Formica, a freshman political communications major at Emerson, said Democrats are “looking strong, as they have the last couple of cycles,” in Massachusetts. Reflecting on the national election Formica added that while “it’s still a bit too close to call, it’s good to see at the local level the momentum is still pretty strong for Democrats.”

For others, like Ted Canova, ‘87, the blue wall of excitement featured during the night at SoWa was a deceptive comfort.

“It’s all pleasant and it’s wonderful, but we are in a bubble,” Canova, also the former managing director of news at WGBH, said of the event, reflecting on how Massachusetts does not represent the rest of the way the country may vote. 

“This is not reality in America, reality in America are these frickin’ counties in some of these states that are gonna determine who the president is,” Canova said. “And it’s maddening to see that number one, it’s this close, and number two, how not just divided the country is, but how it seems off. Half the country is on some of the issues that just seem no-brainers to us as Democrats.”

As the broadcast continued, Canova slow danced with his fiance Michelle Kennedy around the strewn pieces of blue confetti, as music played through the venue’s loudspeakers and attendees, journalists, and politicians continued to file out into the night.

“We are so jaded from 2016 when we were so excited and so hopeful and so confident, and then we just got blown away,” Kennedy said.

Kerrigan came back out to address the remaining crowd at around 11 p.m. after the first swing state, North Carolina, was called in Trump’s favor, expressing continued hope that “we’re all gonna be celebrating virtually over the next day or so Kamala Harris is the next president-elect.”

“We are going to send the most powerful energy into the world,” Kerrigan said.

While the cheering and waving of campaign signs reached a fever pitch during the final moments of the Senator’s speech, the excitement of the night would quickly be dampened as Trump continued to succeed in key states, later going on to win Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on his road to White House victory.

“Not every result we’re seeing tonight is good … but I think what it shows is the odds that we were up against,” Abercrombie said from the event floor as the race remained close and only one swing state had been decided. “We came into this cycle with one of the most underappreciated presidents for our party in a very long time and we worked very, very hard to make this election as close as it was.”

Abercrombie, like many of the speakers at the event before him, expressed faith in the organizing power of the Democratic Party, even in the face of adversity.

“I’m optimistic that there’s still a lot of good in this country and a lot of good people who are ready to do the work to resist whatever it is that we end up with,” Abercrombie said.