The night started with a party and a sense of promise but by midnight, the vibe had shifted

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The night started with a party and a sense of promise but by midnight, the vibe had shifted

时间：2024-11-07 20:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

Early in the night, as the results broadcasts were beginning, the crowd was still excited.

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As voting was closing across the United States and the count was getting underway, the streets around Howard University in Washington DC were buzzing with excitement, anticipation, and a sense that those gathered were there to see history in the making.

Once the official watch party for the Harris-Walz campaign opened, the university's students, staff and alumni started streaming into the venue and the program moved from rehearsals to the hype track portion of the evening.

At that point there were no results to watch, so it was still very much a party.

This is a very significant place – to Kamala Harris as a former student, but also for its long history of Black excellence. For what those gathered had hoped election night would be about.

The event was held in the Yard, a grassy section of campus flanked by academic buildings. There were big screens, a stage ready for an acceptance speech and general admission areas where sororities and fraternities would break into performance.

Among the crowd of Howard University students, teachers and alumni, there was an early feeling of excitement and that the people gathered were there to witness history.

Fraternity and sorority groups would break into performance during the watch party.

"It's good vibes. It's like homecoming 2.0 to get us in the mood for the results. So it's like just dancing and celebrating Black excellence," pre-med student Ashley Johnson told the ABC from deep in the crowd.

A DJ was setting the tone, but once results started to roll in, the screens would switch to the live CNN feed of the count and predictions.

At the very start of counting, the crowd erupted as Harris looked, on face value, to be in a good position in some key states.

Early results for Pennsylvania showed a split of more than 60 per cent for Harris. The crowd erupted.

The crowd was feeling energised and hopeful in the very early stages of counting.

But as international studies student Kima Thi told the ABC, it was that skew in the early counting in the crucial swing state that gave the crowd hope.

"The issue with Pennsylvania is that they counted the Democratic counties first and because of that, we really thought that we had Pennsylvania," he said.

"But as they added in the more conservative counties ... I realised we probably aren't going to have Pennsylvania.

"I started to realise it might not be a guaranteed Kamala victory."

Early Pennsylvania results broadcast to the Harris crowd gave a false sense of hope.

His friend and journalism student Dru Strand said that's when things changed.

"That's when I think I really saw the mood shift. Especially when we looked at the chart as well, and we saw that Michigan was leading red," she said.

"I think all of that really just brought the mood down and really signalled a shift in the crowd."

Pennsylvania and its 19 Electoral College votes was always going to help decide the next president and by the time more than 97 per cent of the vote was counted there, Donald Trump had won 50.6 per cent of the vote.

Dru Strand said the changing Pennsylvania results brought about a palpable shift in mood.

Even as the crowd behind them had started to become anxious, Kayla Mambe and friend Elisa Poole were keeping the faith.

"I know you know it's low here and there, but I'm sure we're going to come out on top," Ms Poole said.

Ms Mambe said: "I'm a little Black girl with dreams and aspirations, and I know with Harris as a president, she understands us, Black ladies," Ms Mambe said

"So we have someone to look up to. We have an idol, we have a sister, we have a mother and president."

Eleisha Poole and Kayla Mambe were among the last to leave as the Harris event wrapped up in Washington DC.

As midnight approached however, the direction of the evening was undeniable.

Everyone gathered knew the seven key races that they needed to pay attention to and there was collective pause as the audio on the CNN feed was pushed up as another update beamed across the Yard.

Around 11pm Harris was about to lose North Carolina.

The big screens broadcast another look at Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and the Sun Belt states of Nevada and Arizona that left the crowd speechless.

By midnight, the organisers pulled the CNN feed and reached for music again, but it was too late. The vibe had shifted and the crowd started to file out.

The large crowd at Howard University thinned out quickly after the result became clear.

There were some devotees who were waiting to see if their vice-president would address the crowd that had gathered for her, but that question was soon answered too.

Harris's campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond stepped up to the microphone that had been installed in front of the event and the world's media and made an announcement.

"You won't hear from the vice-president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters, but to address the nation," he said.

That said it all. And came as media was starting to break the story that the Harris campaign had told its staff to go to bed.

'It was like Hillary all over again'

As the thousands of people who had gathered walked through the hallowed campus of Howard University in the knowledge tens of millions of their fellow Americans had voted down their candidate and the ideas she holds dear, the mood was extremely sombre.

There were frustrations, exasperation and ultimately a feeling of despair.

Ashley Bland Manlove came to the capital expecting a party.

"I'm sick to my stomach. I came here to DC to celebrate, and it's very disappointing that so many people believe in the rhetoric of the other party. I don't know if it's misogyny or sexism, but it's upsetting," Missouri state member Ashley Bland Manlove told the ABC.

"The repercussions it could have on our democracy are pretty scary."

Ms Bland Manlove said there was a familiar sinking feeling.

"Two states dropped and I felt it was like Hillary all over again. It was a very scary feeling," she said.

Kima Thi is concerned about what a Trump White House will mean for the country.

Mr Thi said: "We're going to lose the opportunity to fight for our rights in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to reproductive health and also for queer communities and gender-affirming care.

"The Democrats and Republicans have a history of taking away funding from social services, but the Republicans are so much more passionate about it that I'm just really worried that we're just not going to have much to really like rely on."

By 1am, the Yard was empty, with Kamala Harris expected to return later in the day to make her concession speech.

Another historic moment, but not the one the crowd had gathered to see.