At 5:30 pm on election night, Forest Hills Park behind the 9th Precinct polling place was overtaken with children. At first glance, it looked like a birthday party: Under the pavilion, a folding table had been set out to accommodate a buffet of chips, fruit punch and cookies. Parents hovered nearby, making halfhearted attempts to stop their children from going for a fourth juice box.
On closer inspection, however, it was clear this was something different. Among the Doritos and trays of fruit, parents could partake in the pitchers of “Anti-Trump Arnold Palmer” and “Progressive Punch.” As newcomers filtered down from the polling place, they shouted out to each other in greeting, “Happy election night!”
This was the fourth annual Holi Moli celebration organized by the 9th Precinct volunteers of the Durham County Democratic Party, and this year it happened to align perfectly with election day. After exiting the polls, a member of the group met voters at the door and invited them down the path to join the festivities. Though many participants were returning from previous years, Sarah Shah, the event’s organizer, said that there were many new faces as well.
Unlike the throng of canvassers standing ready with flyers, the Democratic Party representatives were not there to sway voters to vote for a candidate. Instead, their goal was much simpler: fun. “We want voting to be fun, especially for people with families,” said Shah, the precinct chair. “Our hope is that these kids grow up associating voting with something good.”
After thirty minutes or so of talking and eating, voters prepared for the main event: throwing handfuls of colored powder at each other to celebrate Holi Moli, a Hindu celebration of love and spring. Players lined up with their Ziploc bags in the grass outside the pavilion; non participants retreated to the demilitarized zone of the playground. At the countdown, the area exploded into color and chaos. There was some size mismatch between the participants, but it didn’t matter.
A young boy left green handprints on the back of the legs of an older couple; a man squatted down so that a little girl in bright red rainboots could smear purple into his hair. Everyone was laughing.
After, families toweled off and compared the colorful damage. The blue and yellow “I Voted” stickers were mostly hidden behind patches of pink and orange and blue powder.
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To see if Durham county commissioner Nida Allam would dethrone incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee, the challenger and her supporters gathered at The Fruit: Durham’s de facto warehouse-turned dance venue.
Not that there would be much dancing…
Beginning at 7:30 p.m., guests funneled into the gritty space, passing under a giant hanging peach enrobed in velvet.
Gemynii, the DJ and Instagram bio-described “Merfemme,” warmed up the stage for the candidate. As a projector displayed The New York Times’ election results. Gemynii invited attendees to traverse the sea of cameras and join her. “You can still gather right here,” she said.
The watch party was the final scene in a heated rematch between Allam and Foushee for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, a battle that includes topics ranging from the Israel-Palestine conflict to the influence of AI money.
Also tucked into The Fruit’s shadows: Satana Deberry, Durham’s two-term district attorney vying for reelection. She boasted an endorsement by the People’s Alliance, alongside Allam. The incumbent attorney sank into the plushy couches. It was an exhausting day, afterall.
Although she would cruise to an easy victory, she still was weary of her own rematch with Jonathan Wilson. “I think this campaign was nastier,” Deberry said, comparing her third go-around to the previous two.
Gemynii continued mixing tracks, pumping electronic music throughout the graffiti-laden garage. She put her own spin on songs like Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina.” If Allam’s supporters grew antsy, their faces didn’t reveal much — not that there was enough light to tell anyway.
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Sophia Chitlik, the incumbent District 22 state senator, was barely a teenager when she first went door-to-door campaigning.
“I believe in teaching by example,” Sophia’s father, Paul Chitlik, said. The family canvassed for longtime Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Before that, Sophia was about 10 years old when she started cooking and delivering meals alongside her dad, the then-president of Project Chicken Soup—a Los Angeles-based nonprofit preparing food for people with HIV/AIDS.
“And so she learned early that this is how it goes,” said Paul, 78. The genes run strong between the father-daughter pair: they share both the same smile and commitment toward participating in democracy.
On the day of the March 3 primary election, Paul stood outside George Watts Elementary School with a pocketful of flyers touting his daughter’s accomplishments in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Of course, this wasn’t his first rodeo. Last year, Paul supported Sophia’s campaign to unseat Mike Woodard, who had represented Durham in the state Senate since 2012 and cruised to reelection uncontested in every previous cycle.
Compared to last year, campaigning has been easier, Paul said. Sophia secured several key endorsements, including the People’s Alliance and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. So Paul wasn’t nervous. He arrived at the polling site around 10 a.m.
It’s been a small turnout but “sincere,” he said. Looking at his watch, Paul estimated 10 people came to vote in the last hour.
Alongside Paul and a parade of campaign signs Gary Foureman with Durham Democrats (“All the good guys,” Foureman said) and a woman supporting Nadeen Bir for the District 2 seat on the Durham Board of Education tried to catch voters as they made their way inside the school.
The most rewarding part for Paul is watching his daughter think beyond what he’s taught her, he said. “Many people already knew about my daughter. She’s a neighbor. She lives just two streets down from here.”
About five minutes later—as if to prove his point—Sophia pulled up in a silvery-blue Volvo. She’s in go mode. “Hi, Dad!” Sophia waved.
They hugged before she zipped off down Dacian Avenue.
“I love you, Dad! Don’t say anything crazy,” Sophia yelled out the window.
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It was a quiet morning at the 3rd Precinct polling location, located at the back of E. K. Powe Elementary School. Voters trickled in: two older ladies, a couple on a lunchtime walk, a woman finishing up her run. Two campaign volunteers stood outside the door with stacks of flyers, but they were idle for much of the morning.
Suddenly there was action. At noon a man in a white van pulled up to the curb and hopped out with a hammer.
Moving quickly, the man with the hammer circled around to the back of the van and opened its doors. Inside, dozens of signs for Keith Bishop were piled up to the ceiling.
He slid one out and walked to the clump of signs already crowding the curb. With a few practiced knocks, hammered the sign into the ground right at the front. Never mind that the polls had been open for nearly six hours. He was determined that the sign be prominent.
The sign was crooked, so he stepped back, assessing, and gave it another knock until it was perfectly straight.
Satisfied, he hurried back to the van and peeled away, off to another precinct.
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Photo at top: Jac Michel, left, a volunteer for Nadeen Bir and the People’s Alliance, gives a flyer to a voter at a Durham polling place. Photo by Lena Nguyen – The 9th Street Journal
Gabrielle Lazor
Annelise Bowers
