By Molly Burke
Jan 20, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)

Lina Pritchard, center, claps after the national anthem at a GOP inauguration watch party at Harry’s Bar in San Francisco on Monday. Benjamin Fanjoy/Special to the Chronicle
San Francisco Republicans spent Monday morning whooping and applauding in Harry’s Bar on Fillmore Street, celebrating the return to office of President Donald Trump.
More than 100 people gathered at the bar for breakfast, coffee and, for some, cocktails as Trump’s inauguration took place.
Philip Wing, a lifelong San Franciscan who lives in the Sunset, wore a shirt expressing a sentiment many of the attendees echoed: “Proud to be the Elephant in the room.” With more than 80% of the city’s votes going to the Democratic ticket, and just over 15.5% of voters supported Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Republicans are vastly outnumbered in San Francisco.
“Here, Republicans often feel in the midst of another world,” Bill Jackson, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party, said. “Today’s energizing because there is a change in administration that we’ve been looking forward to.”
Jackson said that the inauguration party at Harry’s was likely one of the few places in the city celebrating Trump’s return to power. He, like many other attendees, was hopeful that deportations and tighter restrictions at the border would quickly be implemented.
Jackson also emphasized that the cultural shifts to the right could be felt in San Francisco.
“Even here, I’ve been in touch with leaders in the PTA and schools here who are thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll just dial back a little bit on maybe we’ve gone too far with certain kinds of DEI or certain kinds of language,’” Jackson said. “I think that the cultural shift is impacting a wide range of people here in San Francisco, and that’s going to be important.”
Terry Carpenter, a veteran and general contractor living in Noe Valley, watched the inauguration from a barstool. He came because Jackson, his neighbor, had invited him after realizing they were both Republicans.
Carpenter is typically more concerned with state and local issues, he said, but hopes that Trump will take action on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
While Carpenter typically thinks that Trump is “more bark than bite,” he hopes that the president won’t go too far in deporting all immigrants who came into the country without authorization.
“Our country relies on immigrants a lot. And then you start deporting all of them, what are we left with?” Carpenter said. “We’re left with a bunch of lazy, lazy Americans.”
Stricter action on immigration also brought Nick Berg into the San Francisco GOP. Berg, a newly elected delegate in the party, was not a Republican until two years ago. He said that his involvement in the campaign to recall former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin brought him into politics.
Berg works in property management, and he believes that more law enforcement involved in immigration enforcement could stop the flow of fentanyl to San Francisco. While he supported Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, he still thinks Trump will be helpful in San Francisco.
Berg came in as a delegate to the S.F. GOP as part of a broader center shift. He’s hopeful that the group can begin to mount a more substantial role as an opposition party to Democratic rule in the city.
The Republican is also excited to see deregulation for businesses from Trump, as well as what Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy do under the Department of Government Efficiency.
Jennifer Yan, another new delegate, also got into politics through the Boudin recall. She said that continued concern over public safety led to her involvement in pushing to pass Proposition 36 this fall.
She said voters are concerned about education, crime and regulations on businesses, all of which contributed to their support of Trump.
“His election probably represents voter frustration,” Yan said.
Carpenter is also frustrated with local politics, but curious to see what will happen with Mayor Daniel Lurie, his second choice in November. The Nebraska native doesn’t mince words over state politics and Gov. Gavin Newsom, though, calling him a “hypocrite.”
“With Trump and Newsom, I’m excited about watching those two clowns fight. It’s more of a comedy show,” Carpenter said. “I just think Newsom’s a flat-out idiot. I can’t wait for him to go because he is destroying this state on the daily.”
Jackson, who works as an education consultant, said that while sanctuary state and city policies could insulate San Franciscans from changes on the federal level, he’s hopeful that San Francisco’s leaders take a middle ground stance, taking part in “what’s good about Trump and his administration.”
Jackson hopes that leaders “take advantage of Trump and use him as cover” to enact “common sense policies.”
As the inauguration ceremony began Monday morning, attendees grumbled about the televisions being tuned to CBS News, then applauded the switch to Fox News. When a reporter on TV said that former President Joe Biden had pardoned family members in a final act, one person exclaimed to another, “Are you kidding me?”
As Trump spoke, eyes were glued to the blaring TVs, and cheers erupted for his promises to turn toward fossil fuels and away from electric vehicle promotion, and to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as well as his declaration that the country would only recognize two genders.
Carpenter, who was excited to see the change in administration, said that he thinks often people make assumptions about his political positions because of his affiliations with the Republican Party. But he said he breaks from conservative stances on reproductive rights because he said he doesn’t want any men telling women what to do with their bodies.
“We all are so divided right now. San Francisco is in a bubble,” Carpenter said. “Being a Republican, I get put into a box a lot.”
Carpenter left the bar impressed with Trump’s speech. He thought that while Trump was “a deer in the headlights” during his first term, he was more prepared to take action in this second term. Carpenter said he thought the president was less rambling and more angry in his speech.
“He seemed like he was set and ready to attack the problems at hand,” Carpenter said. “It wasn’t Trump from the first presidency. It was just day and night.”
Reach Molly Burke (she/her): molly.burke@hearst.com; Bluesky: @mollyburke.bsky.social
Jan 20, 2025