Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris had gathered at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on election night for what many expected to be a victory celebration. Harris was scheduled to appear at her alma mater, but as election results began to show a likely Trump victory, a senior Harris campaign official told the crowd near midnight that Harris would not be speaking, and would instead arrive the next day. A smaller, somber group returned to the campus to hear Harris Wednesday.
Photographer Barbara Davidson captured the mood on both days. “It was electric,” she said of the first hours on election night as a crowd of campaign workers, university students, staff and alumni, as well as members of the public, awaited returns. As the odds of victory looked slimmer, the dancing stopped. Some held on to hope, but others showed their dejection and began to leave.
