Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday night at a rally in Brooklyn.
"Thanks to you we have reached a milestone. First time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee for president of the United States of America," the presumptive Democratic nominee told a cheering crowd.
There was celebrating in San Diego, too. Abdisalam Hassan, 19, was excited to cast his vote at Hoover High School in City Heights.
"I voted for Hillary Clinton," the UCLA-bound senior said with two thumbs up.
But like a lot of San Diegans who spoke with KPBS on Tuesday, Hassan wasn't viewing Clinton's triumph through the lens of history. He was thinking about what's next. He was thinking about presumptive presidential GOP nominee Donald Trump.
"With my vote and my friends' votes, we have the power to change the thing. And if we don't, we're going to allow someone else we don't want to become president," he said. "I feel like I have the power to do the right thing, so I don't feel sad at all. I feel excited, like, I can do this."
Democrat James Goodman voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in California's primary election. Now that Clinton has enough delegates to clinch her party's nomination, Goodman said he isn’t sure who will get his support in November.
"I'm pretty sure I can't vote for Trump," Goodman said.
Goodman, 38, moved to San Diego from Minnesota, where he served as a delegate for the Democratic Party several times. He said he may go with a third-party candidate instead of Clinton. He doesn’t want to just shatter the glass ceiling, he said. He wants to shatter the status quo.
"I've always said people really need to look at tangible items, but here I am going completely against what I say. I'm looking for something touchy-feely. I'm looking for authenticity," he said. "Something about (Clinton) just feels that she seems to feel she's owed the presidency — it's her turn. And that really turns me off."
A few miles away, Francisco Garcia caught election returns at Nate’s Garden Grill on Euclid Avenue. He said despite Clinton’s historic moment, this election hasn’t felt like progress for the country.
"I've had this feeling of creepiness for months now," Garcia said.
The 48-year-old said he’s concerned that Trump’s rhetoric resonates with so many voters. Nearly 1.2 million Californians voted for him. That’s compared to Clinton’s 1.9 million and Sanders’ 1.5 million.
"It's more than just Trump. It's America. America is sick," Garcia said.
Clinton's nomination marks a turning point for women, and Trump’s success signals an unprecedented shift in the Republican Party, but Garcia said he thinks this divisive election cycle also marks a transformative moment for America.
"I see it as a point of departure into another era, quite frankly. I think we're about to enter an era where people will finally, finally wake up. Generation X and Baby Boomers, they're not part of the vanguard. The vanguard is younger people who are much more enlightened than we were," he said.
Garcia believes that means a shift to the left.
But talk to people like 26-year-old Francisco Guillen and the only thing that’s certain is young people are looking for a different kind of candidate. Guillen voted for Sanders Tuesday. In November?
"I'll probably go vote for Trump just because he's more direct and I'm hoping more of a Reagan-style leadership. Hillary, she's more of a politician," Guillen said.
For Clinton and Trump, Tuesday was a time to celebrate their unprecedented wins. But both will be back on the campaign trail — Clinton trying to show Sanders' supporters she’s not the status quo, Trump that he’s more than a mogul.
