Anticipation turns to dread at Kamala Harris election party

The campus of Howard University is pictured after the conclusion of an election night campaign watch party for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In an election that was billed as unity versus division, corporate buildings in DC extend a sign of strength: red, white, blue all over. 

It illuminates the road to Howard University where the hopes of revellers at the Harris-Walz election party gradually dimmed.

From a blaze to a flicker. 

Early on, the snow ploughs and steel fencing that blockade streets around Georgia Avenue are inflated by incessant emergency vehicle lighting. 

When the first states start to make the call, volunteers quickly disseminate stars and stripes in a bid to lift the mood. 

High expectations and lofty dreams all around the big house.

Outside, the self-described ‘truth conductor’ patrols the street with a walking frame, an enormous speaker and a simple demand: “Stop hating each other because you disagree.” 

Time now to come together, touching on the same theme Harris had introduced in her final round of speeches when she promised to give those who disagree with her ‘a seat at the table.’ 

All of this swirled around Howard University in Washington DC, her alma mater and a historically black college. 

The Democratic presidential nominee graduated from Howard in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in political science and economics. 

They congregate in front of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall; a momentous brick building flanked by more national flags and await her coronation.

Recently she wrote in Howard's student paper, The Hilltop, of the promise at this place.

“Every signal told students that we could be anything—that we were young, gifted, and black, and we shouldn’t let anything get in the way of our success.” 

An offer of hope. 

However hope, as they say, isn’t a strategy. 

Hope is a dangerous thing.

It can’t encompass all. 

The District of Columbia contest is historically generous to democrats and Harris duly secured the state’s three Electoral College votes. 

Yet protests outside her event demand a change of policy: “Stop arming Israel,” pleads a lengthy flag directly outside the entrance. 

US President Joe Biden elected to spend Election Night at the White House instead.

Scenes from Washington DC on the eve of the US Presidential Election 2024

Hope dwindles too. 

It starts with red flashes. 

In 2008, a news chief was strolling around a military hardware show when he saw a screen marketed at the Pentagon for tracking Special Forces. 

That screen became John King’s magic wall and on Tuesday night, Harris supporters, university staff, alumni and students came together to boo it. 

They ultimately come to despise it, or at least what it depicts. This is decisively Trump’s America.

Crowds gather at the Harris-Walz campaign’s election party in Washington DC on Tuesday

So, one political train powered by and through bile on its way to this weighty destination. 

Roaring, swaying erratically, periodically threatening to derail, emanating all kinds of smoke and scavenging for new load at an array of stops. 

This platform is unprecedented, but the tracks extend far back into history.

Picking up or dumping passengers along the way. This is how it goes. 

Pundits, pollsters, every sort of preacher, now prepare to take credit or deflect blame. 

Donald Trump has boarded this carriage three times now. 

From 2016, in a muted ballroom at the Midtown Manhattan Hilton where he spent election night with a small group of friends of the campaign, the majority of whom thought he was going to lose, to 2020 in the basement of the White House, the same Map Room where Franklin Roosevelt tracked the movements of Allied Forces. 

That night key aids urged him not to declare victory. 

On Tuesday, the early indications from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida was that his advisors were boisterous. 

They were reportedly pushing, understandably, to declare prematurely.

Meanwhile, Harris and her fans became desperate to hold it out. 

A memo to campaign staff is leaked. 

“This is a razor thin race,” they rationalise. 

“We’ve been saying for weeks this race might not be called tonight.” 

Before offering the sound advice to get some sleep. 

Eventually, campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond appears in front of the remaining crowd at Howard. At this stage the once-packed bleachers that circle the yard are half-empty.

“We still have votes to count,” he said.

“We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue, overnight, to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken. So 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 her supporters, but to address the nation.” 

The stroll back out is sombre. 

Students are asked why they are leaving by foreign media at the exits and mumble about class in the morning. 

Bursts of colour extend out from screens at the front of terraced houses that line the road back to the city centre, but now it is confidently, comprehensively, red.