{"id":15757,"date":"2024-11-06T07:54:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T15:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=15757"},"modified":"2024-11-06T23:37:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T07:37:07","slug":"the-night-they-hadnt-prepared-for-the-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=15757","title":{"rendered":"“The Night They Hadn’t Prepared For”, The Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

POLITICS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Elaine Godfrey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photographs by OK McCausland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOVEMBER 6, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the evening wore on, the news got worse\u2014and the guest of honor never showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vibe shifted sometime around 10:30 p.m. Eastern.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image
OK McCausland for The Atlantic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For several hours beforehand, the scene at the Howard University Yard had been jubilant: all glitter and sequins and billowing American flags. The earrings were big, and the risers were full. Men in fraternity jackets and women in pink tweed suits grooved to a bass-forward playlist of hip-hop and classic rock. The Howard gospel choir in brilliant-blue robes performed a gorgeous rendition of \u201cOh Happy Day,\u201d and people sang along in a way that made you feel as if the university\u2019s alumna of the hour, Kamala Harris, had already won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Harris had not won\u2014a fact that, by 10:30, had become very noticeable. As the evening drew on, the clusters of giddy sorority sisters and VIP alumni stopped dancing, their focus trained on the projector screens, which were delivering a steady flow of at best mediocre and sometimes dire news for Democrats. No encouragement had yet come from those all-important blue-wall states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Somewhere between Georgia turning red and Senator Ted Cruz demolishing Colin Allred in Texas, attendees started trickling out the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was starting to feel pretty obvious, even then, that Donald Trump would be declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election. And soon after 5:30 a.m. eastern this morning, he was, when the Associated Press called Wisconsin for him, giving him an Electoral College majority even with a number of states yet to declare. An across-the-board rightward shift, from Michigan to Manhattan, had gradually crushed the hopes of Democrats in an election that, for weeks, polling had indicated was virtually tied. But a Trump victory was a reality that nearly everyone at Harris\u2019s watch party seemed to have prepared for only theoretically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before last night, Democrats felt buoyant on a closing shot of hopium. While Harris stayed on message, Trump had what seemed a disastrous final week: His closing argument was incoherent; his rally at Madison Square Garden was a parade of racism; he stumbled getting into a garbage truck and looked particularly orange in photos. Democratic insiders crowed that early-vote totals were favoring Harris, and that undecided voters in swing states were coming around. Then there was Ann Selzer\u2019s well-respected poll in Iowa, which suggested<\/a> that the state might go blue for the first time since Barack Obama\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image
(OK McCausland for The Atlantic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a breezy and unseasonably warm evening in Washington, D.C., thousands of people had gathered on the grassy campus at Harris\u2019s alma mater to watch, they hoped, history being made. No one mentioned Trump when I asked them how they were feeling\u2014only how excited they were to have voted for someone like Harris. Kerry-Ann Hamilton and Meka Simmons, both members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, had come together to witness the country elect the first Black woman president. \u201cShe is so well qualified\u2014\u201d Hamilton started to say. \u201cOverqualified!\u201d Simmons interjected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah Johnson, who works at Howard and grew up in Washington, told me that she would probably leave the event early to watch returns with her mother and 12-year-old daughter at home. \u201cIt\u2019s an intergenerational celebratory affair,\u201d she said. \u201cI get to say, \u2018Look, Mom, we already have Barack Obama; look what we\u2019re doing now!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone I spoke with used similar words and phrases: lots of first<\/em>s and historic<\/em>s and references to the glass ceiling, which proved so stubbornly uncrackable in 2016. Attendees cheered in unison at the news that Harris had taken Colorado, and booed at Trump winning Mississippi. A group of women in tight dresses danced to \u201c1, 2 Step,\u201d by Ciara and Missy Elliott. Howard\u2019s president led alumni in the crowd in a call-and-response that made the whole evening feel a little like a football game\u2014just fun, low stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several people I talked with refused to entertain the idea that Harris wouldn\u2019t win. \u201cI won\u2019t even let myself think about that,\u201d a woman named Sharonda, who declined to share her last name, told me. She sat with her sorority sisters in their matching pink-and-green sweatshirts. Soon, though, the crowd began to grow restless. \u201cIt was nice when they turned off the TV and played Kendrick,\u201d said one attendee who worked at the White House and didn\u2019t want to share her name. \u201cJust being part of this is restoring my soul, even if the outcome isn\u2019t what I want it to be,\u201d Christine Slaughter, a political-science professor at Boston University, told me. She was cautious. She remembered, viscerally, she said, the moment when Trump won in 2016, and the memory was easy to conjure again now. \u201cI know that feeling,\u201d she said. She was consoling herself: She\u2019d been crushed before. She could handle it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris herself was expected to speak at about 11 p.m., but by midnight, she still hadn\u2019t appeared. People bit their cheeks and scrolled on their phones. There was a burst of gleeful whoops when Angela Alsobrooks beat Larry Hogan in Maryland\u2019s U.S. Senate election. But soon the trickle of exiting attendees became a steady flow. Potentially decisive results from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were not due soon, but Michigan didn\u2019t look good. North Carolina was about to be called for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I texted some of my usual Democratic sources and received mostly radio silence in response. \u201cHow do you feel?\u201d I asked one, who had been at the party earlier. \u201cLeft,\u201d she answered. Mike Murphy, a Republican anti-Trump consultant, texted me back at about 12:30 a.m: \u201cShoot me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donors and VIPs were streaming out the side entrance. The comedian Billy Eichner walked by, looking sad, as the Sugarhill Gang\u2019s \u201cApache (Jump on It)\u201d played over the loudspeakers. A man pulled me aside: \u201cThere will be no speech, I take it?\u201d he said. It was more of a comment than a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"empty
(OK McCausland for The Atlantic<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m depressed, disappointed,\u201d said Mark Long, a software salesman from D.C., who wore a T-shirt with a picture of Harris as a child. He was especially upset about the shift toward Trump among Black men. \u201cI\u2019m sad. Not just for tonight, but for what this represents.\u201d Elicia Spearman seemed angry as she marched out of the venue. \u201cIf it\u2019s Trump, people will reap what they sow,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s karma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before 1 a.m., the Harris campaign co-chair CedricRichmond came onstage to announce that the candidate would not be speaking that night. The former Louisiana representative offered muted encouragement to the crowd\u2014an unofficial send-off. \u201cThank you for being here. Thank you for believing in the promise of America,\u201d he said, before adding, \u201cGo, Kamala Harris!\u201d The remaining members of the crowd cheered weakly. Some of the stadium lights went off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POLITICS By Elaine Godfrey Photographs by OK McCausland NOVEMBER 6, 2024 As the evening wore on, the news got worse\u2014and the guest of honor never showed. The vibe shifted sometime around 10:30 p.m. Eastern. For several hours beforehand, the scene at the Howard University Yard had been jubilant: all glitter and sequins and billowing American flags. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15763,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15757\/revisions\/15763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}