The atmosphere changed sometime around 10:30 PM Eastern.

A few hours earlier, the scene at Howard University Yard had been exuberant: all glitter, sequins and waving American flags. The earrings were large and the holders were full. Men in fraternity jackets and women in pink tweed suits to a bass-forward playlist of hip-hop and classic rock. The Howard Gospel Choir in gorgeous blue robes performed a beautiful rendition of “Oh Happy Day,” and people sang along in a way that made you feel like college alumna Kamala Harris had already won.

But Harris had not won – a fact that had become very clear by half past ten. As the evening wore on, the groups of giddy frat boys and VIP alumni stopped dancing, their attention focused on the projector screens, which provided a steady stream of mediocre at best and sometimes gloomy news for Democrats. No encouragement had yet come from the all-important blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Somewhere between Georgia turning red and Senator Ted Cruz trashing Colin Allred in Texas, attendees began trickling out from the back.

Even then, it was starting to become quite clear that Donald Trump would be declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election. And shortly after 5:30 this morning in the East, that was the case, when the Associated Press called Wisconsin for him, giving him a majority in the Electoral College even with a number of states yet to be declared. A general shift to the right, from Michigan to Manhattan, had gradually crushed Democrats’ hopes in an election that polls had indicated for weeks were nearly tied. But a Trump victory was a reality that almost everyone in Harris’ watch group seemed to have prepared for only theoretically.

Before last night, Democrats were feeling exhilarated after a final shot of hopium. While Harris stayed on message, Trump had a seemingly disastrous final week: his closing argument was incoherent; his rally at Madison Square Garden was a parade of racism; he tripped while getting into a garbage truck and looked particularly orange in photos. Democratic insiders crowed that early voting numbers favored Harris, and that undecided voters in swing states were on the way. Then there was Ann Selzer’s respected poll in Iowa, which suggested the state could move into the red for the first time since Barack Obama’s presidency.

On a breezy and unseasonably warm evening in Washington, D.C., thousands of people had gathered on the grassy campus of Harris’ alma mater to watch what they hoped was history being made. No one mentioned Trump when I asked them how they felt — just 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 gathered to witness the election of the first black female president. “She’s so well qualified…” Hamilton began to say. “Overqualified!” Simmons intervened.

Leah Johnson, who works at Howard and grew up in Washington, told me she would probably leave the event early to watch the returns at home with her mother and 12-year-old daughter. “It’s an intergenerational festive occasion,” she said. “I can say, ‘Look Mom, we already have Barack Obama; look what we’re doing now! ”

Everyone I spoke to used similar words and phrases: a lot Firsts and historicals and references to the glass ceiling that proved so stubbornly unbreakable in 2016. Attendees cheered in unison at the news that Harris had taken Colorado, and booed when Trump won Mississippi. A group of women in tight dresses danced to “1, 2 Step” by Ciara and Missy Elliott. Howard’s president led alumni into the crowd in a call-and-response that made the entire evening feel a bit like a football game: just fun, with low stakes.

Several people I spoke to refused to entertain the idea that Harris wouldn’t win. “I don’t even let myself think about that,” 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. But soon the crowd started to get restless. “It was fun when they turned off the TV and played Kendrick,” said one attendee who worked in the White House and did not want to share her name. “Just being a part of this is restoring my soul, even if the outcome isn’t what I want it to be,” Christine Slaughter, a professor of political science at Boston University, told me. She was careful. She remembered, she said viscerally, the moment Trump won in 2016, and the memory was now easy to recall. “I know that feeling,” she said. She consoled herself: she had been crushed before. She could handle it again.

Harris herself was expected to speak around 11 p.m., but by midnight she still had not appeared. People were biting their cheeks and scrolling on their phones. There was an eruption of joyful cheers as Angela Alsobrooks defeated Larry Hogan in the U.S. Senate elections in Maryland. But soon the trickle of enthusiastic visitors became a steady stream. Potentially decisive results from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wouldn’t come anytime soon, but Michigan wasn’t looking good. North Carolina was about to be called for Trump.

I texted some of my usual Democratic sources and got mostly radio silence in response. “How are you feeling?” I asked someone who had been to the party before. “Left,” she replied. Mike Murphy, a Republican anti-Trump consultant, texted me back around 12:30 p.m.: “Shoot me.”

Donors and VIPs streamed out the side entrance. Comedian Billy Eichner walked by, looking sad, as the Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache (Jump on It)” played over the speakers. A man pulled me aside: “There will be no speech, I take it?” he said. It was more of a comment than a question.

“I’m depressed and disappointed,” said Mark Long, a D.C. software salesman who wore a T-shirt with a photo of Harris as a child. He was especially angry about the shift toward Trump among black men. ‘I’m sad. Not just for tonight, but for what this represents. Elicia Spearman appeared angry as she marched out of the room. “If it’s Trump, people will reap what they sow,” she said. “It’s karma.”

Just before 1 a.m., Cedric, co-chair of the Harris campaign Richmond took the stage to announce that the candidate would not be speaking that evening. The former Louisiana representative offered hushed cheers to the crowd — an unofficial farewell. ‘Thank you for being here. Thank you for believing in the promise of America,” he said, before adding, “Go, Kamala Harris!” The rest of the crowd cheered faintly. Some of the stadium lights went out.