Just after midnight, a few hundred feet from where Kamala Harris was expected to stand on stage for her election night party at Howard University in Washington, DC, a handful of students sat in a huddle.
They began their night ecstatic, they said, ready to celebrate the ascent of a Howard alum to the highest office in the US. The Democratic presidential nominee had chosen to return to her alma mater for the special night, but later, she cancelled her planned appearance.
“I felt so excited, like this is history in the making,” said Cori Ross, 20. “No other campus has the future president, or at least the current vice-president on their grounds.”
But with the first two calls from the country’s seven swing states – Georgia and North Carolina, both projected for Donald Trump – the collective change in mood was obvious.
“We’re freaking out,” said Ross’s fellow student Dru Strand. “It’s just such a close race, so the minute that someone loses one state or gains in one state… it’s just super stressful.”
The crowd packed inside Howard’s Yard, the grassy quad at the centre of the university, started to thin out, seemingly hundreds of people streaming off campus in the cool night air.
Those who stayed seemed to hold on to the enthusiasm of hours before, dancing and singing along to the music by Usher, Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé, blasting from the speakers dotting the yard.
Only hours earlier on Tuesday, the mood across Howard’s campus had been exuberant, reminiscent of the joy and enthusiasm that characterised the early days of Harris’s presidential campaign.
Thousands stood outside under the night sky, ready to celebrate the country’s first woman president.
Many in the crowd were decked out in Howard merchandise, or the regalia of Harris’s sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), the country’s first black sorority, the sorority’s trademark bright pink colour standing out in the sea of people.
“It means a lot that she decided to come home,” said Patrice Williams, a member of AKA who attended another one of the country’s HBCUs.
After months of polling showing the candidates in a virtual tie, early voting data gave the Harris team some reason for optimism: women – who polls show are backing Harris by a sizable margin – were turning out in record numbers.
And when early returns showed Harris boasted modest leads in crucial states Pennsylvania and Michigan, the gathered crowd had erupted in excitement that the night may be tipping in her favour.
But that excitement soon gave way to anxiety, as Harris’s path to the White House looked increasingly improbable, blocked by Trump’s accumulating state victories.
“It’s extremely nerve-wracking,” Ross said. “I feel that people don’t comprehend what truly is on the line. So much could switch by the end of the week, we could be living in a completely different nation.”
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