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