WASHINGTON – History felt within reach at Howard University as thousands of supporters gathered to watch Vice-President Kamala Harris become the country’s first female leader. But as the electoral map on the screens turned from grey to red, joy dissolved into fear and, finally, despair.
One by one, the states fell.
Former president Donald Trump’s electoral count climbed steadily, and as the weight of what was unfolding settled in, cheers turned to silence, dancing to stillness. Hours later, in a decision as final as the electoral numbers on the screen, the Harris campaign announced that she would not address the crowd.
Trump’s win, followed by Republican victories in the Senate and likely in the House, marked a clear and decisive shift to the right in the polarised country.
For Ms Harris, the path to the presidency had always been steep, the bearer of continuity when the electorate was craving change.
One exit poll found that 73 per cent of voters thought the country was headed in the wrong direction. Ms Harris faced an uphill battle convincing voters that she was not, in fact, steering the ship.
“In terms of the influences that normally structure outcomes in American presidential elections, all those forces are on Trump’s side. The approval rating and performance concerns about the Biden administration are very much in Trump’s favour,” said political science professor John Mark Hansen at the University of Chicago, who specialises in elections. “So there was never any prospect that Americans were going to run away with a landslide.”
By the end of the night, the crowd at the university had thinned, save for the hopefuls who prayed she would be able to turn the tide in her favour. “I’m tired, I’m overwhelmed. You want to cry, but then there are waves of hope,” said Ms Amarylis Bee, 18, her voice cracking with emotion.
The contest was short but brutal. Ms Harris’ campaign lasted a truncated 70 days after the Democratic Party replaced President Joe Biden on the ticket in July, following a lacklustre debate performance that raised questions about the octogenarian’s fitness for a second term. Ms Harris, his running mate, stepped up to lead the Democrats, rallying the party around her – but convincing voters proved more challenging.
The Vice-President could not shake off voters’ lack of confidence in the economy. Despite stabilised inflation rates and recent better-than-expected job market reports, an overwhelming 67 per cent of voters believed the economy was “not so good or poor”, according to an NBC News exit poll.
“We underestimate how important the pandemic has been for Americans. Of course, there’s been inflation in pretty much every country that suffered from the pandemic. But Americans were not used to the prices going up as quickly as they did,” said Professor Michael Kazin, an expert on the Democratic Party and history professor at Georgetown University.
“A lot of people felt… if they weren’t being helped economically by the Democrats, then they were going to gravitate towards Republicans on cultural grounds, gay marriage, abortion.”
Ms Harris’ message of national unity and protection of reproductive rights was unable to anchor a deeply divided electorate. Her loss caps one of the most turbulent elections in recent history.
In July, Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt after he was shot in the ear while campaigning in Pennsylvania. Trump, bleeding, shoved his fist up in defiance as he was escorted off stage, vowing to “fight”.
A second assassination attempt was foiled two months later when Secret Service agents uncovered a gunman hiding in the bushes at a golf course where Trump was playing.
Even as the Democratic candidates called for a lowering of the political temperature, Trump infused his speeches with calls for violence, saying his detractors should be shot and vowing to take revenge on his political enemies.
Ms Harris’ ascent – from California prosecutor to the state’s attorney-general, US senator, and eventually vice-president – had inspired a generation of black and Asian Americans. The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants and a graduate of Howard, she represented a vision of America many supporters were desperate to see realised.
“If you told me when I was five that a woman who looked like me would be running for president, I wouldn’t have believed it. I honestly never expected it, but it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come,” said Ms Lydia Gebro, 21, a student at Howard University.
But, as the hours ticked on, the energy and optimism that had infected the crowd dissipated. Supporters chanted Ms Harris’ name until a representative from the campaign informed them that the Vice-President would not be coming out, a final blow in a night of disillusion.
“There’s disappointment in how America has decided to choose a convicted felon for president. If you want to see the ultimate white privilege, it’s this,” Maryland lawyer Garfield Sims, 61, said. “Two hundred and fifty years of racism in this country is hard to overcome. It’s a sickness.”
In Montgomery County, the third-most populous county in swing state Pennsylvania, 18-year-old Jordan McIlwiane said: “I feel like my vote didn’t count at all. I don’t know... I voted for Kamala. For one, she’s not a criminal.”
Ms Cynthia Davenport, 68, also from Montgomery County, said Ms Harris wants to improve the economy and looks out for the middle class. “In good conscience, I could never vote for someone with the character of Trump. His disrespect of women, of immigrants, just his moral character, is not befitting of a president.”
Back in Washington, Ms Sheila Carpar, a 67-year-old retiree who had been waiting for six hours for the Vice-President to address the crowds, at 1am local time, tucked her American flag under her arm and rested her head on her hands. It was over.
“The world needs to be scared,” she said. “Trump has no sense of why we have allies. Our reputation is already damaged. Will the rest of the world trust us?”