WASHINGTON D.C. — Standing on a stage in front of Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall on the campus of Howard University, her alma mater, Kamala Harris told a courtyard filled with her young supporters she was ending her bid for president.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say: The light of America’s promise will always burn bright,” Harris said. “As long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting.”
She went on to thank President Joe Biden and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was seated in the front row with his family, near Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of House and a tireless Trump antagonist.
Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket in July, taking the reins of Biden’s floundering reelection bid after weeks of pressure on the 81-year-old president to step aside. Her candidacy, which lasted just 108 days, helped pulled the Democratic ticket out of a nosedive trajectory — and though campaign staff was optimistic about her chances of running the tables in the battleground states, by the time she addressed supporters, she had officially lost five of seven, including all three of the “Blue Wall” states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin — as well as North Carolina and Georgia.
Results in Nevada and Arizona were still outstanding on Wednesday afternoon, when Harris called President Trump to concede the election. (According to a Harris staffer, on the call, the rivals discussed “the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans.)
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris told the crowd at Howard on Wednesday afternoon. “The fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people — a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”
She added: “We will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts, and in the public square. And we will also wage it in quieter ways — in how we live our lives, by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by always using our strength to lift people up to fight for the dignity that all people deserve.”
Fewer than 20 hours earlier, Howard University’s yard had a very different affect: bathed in warm light on an unseasonably balmy November night. Colossal American flags billowed in the backdrop, as jubilant throngs of students, alumni, and political organizers danced the Wobble.
All over the quad, women decked out in salmon pink and apple green — the colors of Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha — were ready to celebrate her ascension to the nation’s highest office.
“I feel elated, overwhelmed — I can’t even express my emotions right now! I’m literally witnessing history; this is something I can tell my kids,” Anijah Johnson told me. She was wearing a t-shirt with Harris’ face screen-printed across it. “I’m trying not to get anxious or overwhelmed because I put my trust in the Lord. God told me that Kamala Harris is going to win the 2024 election, so she’s gonna win!”
By that hour on Tuesday night, typically chatty Democratic operatives were unusually tight-lipped, offering only curt assessments about how close the race was going to be. Others had left the party early, stressed out by the lack of cell service and their inability to follow the results in real-time.
But the mood really started to shift around 11 p.m. “The energy was kind of zapped after North Carolina,” said Dino Nzanga. “That’s when you’ve got to turn off the CNN noise, and turn on the emergency DJ.” But Nzanga, a professional in his late 20s, was keeping his sense of humor alive. He does stand-up comedy, and he says he’s been joking lately that he didn’t want the election — an election that hinged on which campaign was able to win the loyalty of men like himself — to end. “As a black man, I’ve never been pandered to so much in my life! I feel wanted, I feel seen,” he laughed.
Nzanga had been clear-eyed about the possibility the race wouldn’t be called on election night, but he nonetheless seemed a tiny bit deflated, walking out of the event. “The pep talk I gave myself on the walk over here was: If Trump wins, he’s a grifter and he’s an opportunist and, on some level, it’s going to be every man for himself, and there are ways to make money in that America,” he said, sanguinely.
Leaving Howard around the same time, shortly after midnight, Daniel Jubelirer, a Democratic political organizer who works in rural communities, was at a loss. He told me he’d spent part of this cycle canvassing in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. “It’s hard to reckon the enthusiasm at the doors with the numbers on the screen,” Jubelirer said, thinking back to all of the people he’d met who told him they were voting for a Democrat for the first time ever this election. “There was this sense of momentum, so, seeing the numbers in Wisconsin? It’s pretty bleak.”
It was only a few minutes later that former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser at the Democratic National Committee, took the stage to deliver a message sending the rest of the now crestfallen crowd home.
When Harris returned to address the nation on Wednesday, Harris spoke to her despondent young supporters directly. “It is okay to feel sad and disappointed,” she said. “But please know it’s going to be OK.”
She closed with a final thought: “On the campaign, I would often say, ‘When we fight, we win.’ But here’s the thing: Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win… Do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.”