'I can't even imagine' How Democrats' hopes of history melted away

In the end, Kamala Harris never took the stage at her election night watch party on the Howard University campus in Washington DC.

- Lauren Gambino

As Americans appeared poised to return Donald Trump to power, it was her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, who appeared instead.

He tried to strike a note of optimism - there were still votes to be counted. But the scene had echoes of Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016, when her campaign chairman, not the candidate, came out to address her election night supporters - women and girls awaiting a result that many hoped would finally shatter the "hardest, highest" glass ceiling. Eight years later, they are still waiting.

Richmond told a dispersing crowd that they would not be hearing from the vice-president on election night after all. "We still have votes to count," he said. "We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken."

The evening had begun with promise. Doreen Hogans, 50, arrived at Harris's election night watch party at Howard University on Tuesday evening filled with cautious optimism. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled a string of pearls that had belonged to her late mother. She considered how her mother might feel that the nation's first female and first Black female vice-president was on the cusp of history.

"She would have been so proud," Hogans said, her eyes glistening, letting herself imagine Harris, and her signature pearls, ascend to the presidency. She took a deep breath, pocketed the necklace and merged into the crowd of Democrats assembled on the Yard.

Harris's supporters were hopeful. The music pulsed. "If you're ready to make Black history, talk to me," the DJ called out, drawing cheers and applause.

Members of Harris's Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, wearing pink and green, danced on the lawn in front of the stage set for her to speak.

Michele Fuller, who overlapped with Harris as a student at Howard in the 1980s, rushed into the event with a friend. "It feels unbelievable," she said.