It was around then, clocks striking 12, down at the Trump party in Mar-a-Lago, that the crowd erupted when North Carolina was called, by the liberal-leaning CNN broadcaster, for the Republicans . Meanwhile, the Trump campaign was also beginning to close in on Pennsylvania, the state whose 19 electoral college votes has rendered it the key state of the past three elections. Without it, Harris can have no path to the White House.
Long before any concession speeches were drafted, it felt as though the aftermath had begun. A golden night was beginning to materialise for the Republicans: a second Trump presidency, an increased margin in the House and majority control of the Senate. It is too early to declare anything for certain but the Harris was trailing Trump by some 178,000 votes in Pennsylvania with 77 per cent of the votes returned and would require an overwhelming bump from Philadelphia and its suburbs to recover that margin.
It was, for Donald Trump, reportedly heading from his Mar-a-Lago residence to the results watch party in West Palm Beach, arguably the least turbulent night of an election year that has thrown everything at him. All afternoon in downtown Washington, the atmosphere had been different: very still and balmy, with joggers and empty streets and the streets around Howard fenced off and heavily policed from midday. Choosing Howard, the traditionally black university founded in 1867, was for Harris a symbolic choice.
She matriculated in 1982, in economics and .
