CNN
—
It was supposed to be everything short of a free ad – a panel of women not containing their excitement to welcome Kamala Harris, ready to introduce her to their committed daytime audience of exactly the type of women the vice president’s campaign always hoped were going to be critical to her base.
It was a moment that encapsulated one of the biggest challenges facing her campaign – which, in the end, proved insurmountable.
“What, if anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” co-host of ABC’s “The View” Sunny Hostin asked Harris, looking to give her a set for her to spike over the net.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she said.
Even Harris realized she had a problem, trying to adjust a moment later by saying she would put a Republican in her Cabinet.
Aides didn’t wait until Harris was off the set to start trying to clean it up. A Democrat who had spoken with her told CNN at the time that she didn’t want to name her differences with President Joe Biden – including a higher capital gains tax rate, a bigger child tax credit and a tougher border policy – because she thought it would look disloyal to the man who had picked her as his running mate and then stepped aside for her.
The thud fell in a campaign already struggling with a listless October, which had replaced the late summer exuberance and a September debate that nearly every political observer other than Donald Trump acknowledged she crushed. As aides new to the Harris orbit exerted control, she struggled with preparation. She grew hesitant, losing some of the confidence and swagger that had defined the early weeks of her reintroduction to the country. Aides who had successfully pushed her out of her comfort zone earlier in the year felt like they were running into the kind of walls she used to put up.
CNN spoke with over a dozen senior Harris campaign aides both in the Wilmington, Delaware, campaign headquarters and on the ground in the states, as well as multiple volunteers and local elected officials, over the course of the final weeks of the race.
A country crying out for change got a candidate who, at a crucial moment as more voters were tuning in, decided to soft-pedal the change she knew she represented.
In the scope of a Democratic ticket that pulled off the biggest turnaround in approval ratings and the fastest consolidation around a new candidate in the history of modern presidential politics, this may have seemed like a minor moment. But it reflected deeper problems: some, like with the staff around her, that she might have been able to adjust; and one, with Biden, that she could never shake, with internal polls showing overwhelming majorities of voters thought the country was on the wrong track.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris makes her way to board Air Force Two before departing Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin on September 20.
By the time Harris got a clearer, sharper contrast answer out on the Biden question, the situation had congealed in ways she never got past – both among voters wavering in the center who wanted to hear her rebuff the president on his handling of the economy and voters on the left who wanted to hear her more forcefully disavow Biden’s support for Israel.
But perhaps the bigger problem with Biden, top Democrats fumed in the aftermath of that fateful debate in June and then again as they watched the results turn red on Tuesday, is that he should have never been anywhere near the 2024 race. If he had stepped aside after the midterms, as some aides urged him to, the Democratic Party process could have played out in a primary campaign. Candidates’ kinks could have been worked out – or not. Almost certainly whoever emerged as the nominee would have gone into the final weeks without so many Americans complaining they didn’t know enough, as they said about Harris. Biden could have taken on a role as steward and elder statesman, rather than a guy the Harris campaign never knew quite what do with.
If the election had been two weeks ago, senior aides to Harris were admitting in recent days, the vice president probably would have lost. But they went into Tuesday feeling like she had gotten herself to a likely squeaker victory. One-on-one conversations volunteers were having as they knocked on doors seemed to be clicking. For the first time in his nine years dominating American politics, Trump’s character seemed to be breaking through as an actual weight on people who wanted to vote for him.
Leading Democrats smiled just thinking about what it would mean to beat Trump with the first female president — a woman of color, a child of two immigrants, a prosecutor, and a candidate who talked about joy and offered up her smile against the scowl that had become his most common expression. Her candidacy sparked in them the unfamiliar feeling of hope.
That sentiment evaporated by 11 p.m. on Tuesday. But for many anxious Democrats, this is just the beginning. Going into Election Day, many top Democratic operatives across the campaign and in the states told CNN different versions of the same thought: If this didn’t work – with the massive campaign they’d put together, with millions of doors knocked by volunteers who flooded into battleground states, with GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney and former President Bill Clinton united under the same tent stumping hard for her, with celebrities from Bad Bunny and Arnold Schwarzenegger throwing their cultural weight behind her – what will?
Will Lanzoni/CNN
Former President Donald Trump appears with his wife, Melania, and son Barron on stage at his election night watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on November 6.
Austin Steele/CNN
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers
her concession speech on November 6 at Howard University in Washington, DC. “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for," she said. "But hear me when I say: The light of America’s promise will always burn bright."
Will Lanzoni/CNN
Trump supporters cheer at his election night watch party in West Palm Beach.
David Becker/Getty Images
Voters cast their ballots at a mall in Las Vegas on Election Day.
Austin Steele/CNN
Harris supporters watch election results come in at Howard University in Washington, DC.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Trump speaks at an Election Day rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images
A resident checks in to cast their ballot in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, just after midnight on Election Day. Harris
tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire township.
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Harris takes the stage during a rally in Philadelphia on November 4.
John Locher/AP
An advertisement for Harris is displayed on the Sphere in Las Vegas on November 4.
Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Trump dances on stage after speaking at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh on November 4.
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Election workers prepare to process mail-in ballots in City of Industry, California, on November 4.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Pool
Harris shares a laugh with second gentleman Doug Emhoff after reuniting aboard Air Force Two on November 4. They had just taken off from Pittsburgh for her final campaign rally in Philadelphia.
Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images
Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia, on November 3.
Chary Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Harris makes
a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" on November 2. “You got this,” Harris told her “SNL” alter ego, played by Maya Rudolph.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Supporters cheer on Trump as he arrives for a campaign rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, on November 2.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Election workers sort ballots during early voting in San Francisco on October 31.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Areli Sanchez holds a Puerto Rican flag during a Harris campaign rally in North Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 31. Puerto Rico has been in the headlines since a comedian at a Trump rally made comments
assailing the US island territory, calling it a "floating pile of garbage."
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
Trump speaks from a garbage truck in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on October 30.
He was seizing on a garbled remark by President Joe Biden that seemed to insult Trump voters as “garbage.” Biden has personally denied calling Trump supporters “garbage,” saying his comment on a video call was misinterpreted. The White House, on cleanup duty, insisted the president was only talking about one person, the comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Trump rally.
Jim Bourg/Redux
Harris speaks from the Ellipse in Washington, DC, on October 29. The Harris-Walz campaign billed the speech as
her "closing argument" one week before the election.
Craig Hudson/Reuters
Biden is handed an "I Voted Early" sticker after he cast his vote in New Castle, Delaware, on October 28.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Trump attends a rally in Tempe, Arizona, on October 24.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times/Redux
Harris and former President Barack Obama walk and talk backstage before speaking at a campaign rally in Clarkston, Georgia, on October 24.
Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
Trump supporters attend a campaign event in Duluth, Georgia, on October 23.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Harris is surprised by campaign staff with birthday decorations before Air Force Two departed from Atlanta on October 20. Harris just turned 60.
Allison Joyce/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Voters wait in line in Wilmington, North Carolina, during the first day of early voting there on October 17.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Harris hugs a child after speaking at a campaign event in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, on October 16.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Ryan Collerd/AFP/Getty Images
Staff members steam wrinkles out of the US flag that was being used as a backdrop for former President Obama, who would be campaigning for Harris in Pittsburgh on October 10.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Republican JD Vance, left, and Democrat Tim Walz take part in a
vice presidential debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York on October 1. The matchup between Vance, the 40-year-old Ohio senator, and Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota governor, took place in New York without a live audience.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Harris shakes hands with media mogul Oprah Winfrey at a rally in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on September 19.
Lynne Sladky/AP
Law enforcement officials work at the scene of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 17. The FBI was investigating what it said was
an apparent assassination attempt on Trump — the second time in two months there’s been an apparent attempt on his life. Trump, who was playing golf at the time, was not harmed. A Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel with a scope sticking out of the fence of the golf course and “immediately engaged” with the person, firing shots at the man, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
Jae C. Hong/AP
Trump speaks during a news conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on September 13. Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, suggested he might change his mind about a second debate with Harris: “I did great with the debates, and I think they’ve answered everything. But maybe if I got in the right mood, I don’t know.”
Michael Le Brecht II/ABC News
A countdown clock over debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis shows how much time Trump has left to answer a question during his
presidential debate with Harris on September 10. The debate, which took place in Philadelphia, was the first time Trump and Harris had met.
Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times/Redux
Trump, left, greets Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23. Kennedy had just suspended his independent campaign and
threw his support behind Trump.
Todd Heisler/The New York Times/Redux
Amara Ajagu watches Harris formally accept her party's presidential nomination at the
Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 22.
Ajagu is one of Harris' young grandnieces. Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead a major-party ticket. If elected, she would be the first woman and Indian American president.
Rebecca Wright/CNN
On the night of Harris' speech, many delegates at the Democratic National Convention
wore white, the color associated with the suffragette movement.
Bernadette Tuazon/CNN
Walz is joined by his daughter, Hope; his son, Gus; and his wife, Gwen, at the Democratic National Convention on August 21. Walz said accepting the vice presidential nomination was
“the honor of my life.”
Julia Nikhinson/AP
A Trump supporter carries a Trump standup after a campaign rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, on August 21.
Austin Steele/CNN
Former President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention on August 20.
He told the crowd that he is “feeling hopeful” because Harris is ready to step into the White House. “This convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible,” Obama said. “Because we have a chance to elect someone who has spent her entire life trying to give people the same chances America gave her.”
Erin Schaff/The New York Times/Redux
Harris watches Walz speak as she sits backstage at their rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Vincent Alban/Reuters
Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, looks away as Trump speaks during a Q&A session at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on July 31. Scott asked Trump why Black voters should trust him given his past racist comments about members of Congress and political rivals like Nikki Haley and Barack Obama.
Trump called it a “very nasty question” and a “rude introduction.” Later in the session, Trump falsely claimed that Vice President Harris
“happened to turn Black” a few years ago.
Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden
addresses the nation from the White House Oval Office on July 24, explaining his decision not to seek reelection. It’s the first time a one-term US president has dropped out of a reelection run in decades. "I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term,” said Biden,
who had been fighting for his political life after a disastrous debate performance in June. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So, I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”
Kevin Mohatt/Reuters
Harris, bottom left in the blue jacket, attends
her first campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, on July 23. The former US senator from California, who previously served as the state’s attorney general, was endorsed by Biden to be his successor.
Julia Nikhinson/AP
Biden wears a mask while returning to the White House on July 23. He tested positive for Covid-19 a few days before he dropped out of the race, and he spent the weekend at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. He was in Delaware when he announced his decision to drop out.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries leave a news conference after
endorsing Harris for president on July 23. “Kamala Harris and her candidacy has excited and energized the House Democratic Caucus, the Democratic Party and the nation,” Jeffries said.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
Trump raises his fist during the
Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. At the convention, Trump formally accepted his party’s presidential nomination for a third straight election. His keynote speech came five days after
he survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” he said.
Bernadette Tuazon/CNN
People watch the Republican National Convention from inside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 17.
Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty Images
Marine One takes off from the South Lawn of the White House, taking Biden to Las Vegas on July 15. Biden traveled to Las Vegas for campaign stops, speeches and interviews. Up to this point, he had been adamant that he was staying in the presidential race despite a growing list of Democratic lawmakers calling for him to step aside.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Biden addresses the nation from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on July 14.
In a speech from the Oval Office later than day, he called on the country to "lower the temperature in our politics" following the assassination attempt on Trump.
Evan Vucci/AP
Trump, with blood on his face, raises his fist to the crowd as he is helped by Secret Service agents at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Trump’s right ear was struck by a bullet during an
assassination attempt, according to law enforcement.
The shooter was killed by the Secret Service, the agency said.
The FBI identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and authorities told CNN that he was positioned on a building rooftop just outside the rally venue. One rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two others were critically injured.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Blood can be seen on Trump's face as he is covered by Secret Service agents immediately after gunshots rang out in Butler on July 13.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times/Redux
Harris speaks at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans on July 6.
She often defended Biden in the weeks following his debate with Trump.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
A sign reading “Pass the torch, Joe” is held up at a campaign rally for Biden in Madison, Wisconsin, on July 5.
Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images
Journalists run across the Supreme Court plaza, carrying an opinion to a news correspondent, as the court handed down decisions in Washington, DC, on July 1.
The court ruled that Trump may claim immunity from criminal prosecution for some of the actions he took in the waning days of his presidency.
Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times/Redux
Biden talks on the phone as he heads to Camp David with his wife, Jill, and granddaughters Finnegan and Natalie on June 29. Following his debate with Trump, some Democratic officials said they wanted him to step aside from the 2024 race for the good of the party and the country.
Tom Brenner/The New York Times/Redux
Trump holds a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on June 28.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
Trump and Biden take part in the
CNN presidential debate on June 27. It was the first time in history that a sitting US president faced a former president in a debate.
Biden’s poor performance set off alarm bells among top Democrats, leaving some to openly question whether he could stay atop the Democratic ticket.
Tristen Rouse/CNN
People watch the CNN presidential debate from Union Pub in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Supporters of Trump hold up placards as they wait for him to speak at a rally in Philadelphia on June 22.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
Trump shakes hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he meets with GOP lawmakers in Washington, DC, on June 13.
Trump led House Republicans through a gripe-filled closed-door meeting, airing grievances about his legal and electoral challenges, attacking his critics in the room, and only briefly addressing policy matters like abortion and taxes, according to multiple GOP lawmakers in the room. It was Trump’s first time returning to the Capitol campus area since leaving office after the January 6, 2021, riot.
Justin Lane/Pool/Getty Images
Trump leaves the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York after
he was found guilty in his hush money trial on May 30. It was the first time in history that a former US president had been
convicted of a felony. A jury found Trump guilty on 34 charges of falsifying business records. Prosecutors alleged that the former president engaged in a cover-up scheme to hide reimbursement payments made to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who had paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public about a past affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair.
Yuri Gripas/The New York Times/Redux
Biden delivers remarks at a campaign event in Philadelphia on May 29. Biden and Harris rolled out an initiative called Black Voters for Biden-Harris.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Trump attends a campaign event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on May 1.
Jabin Botsford/Pool/Getty Images
Trump attends his hush money trial at the start of jury selection on April 15.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton join Biden on stage for
a campaign fundraising event at New York's Radio City Music Hall on March 28.
Matt Kelley/AP
Harris embraces Biden after a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, on March 26.
The rare joint appearance highlighted the emphasis that the duo would place on health care, which they believe is a winning issue for Democrats ahead of November's election.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Vinay Reddy, Biden's director of speechwriting, works at his laptop while White House economic advisor Lael Brainard talks on her phone outside a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix where Biden was holding a campaign event on March 19.
Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times/Redux
Trump speaks during a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on March 16.
Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times/Redux
Biden looks out at a crowd as he arrives to greet people during a campaign event in Saginaw, Michigan, on March 14.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times/Redux
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley walks off stage after announcing that she would be
suspending her presidential campaign on March 6. Haley made the announcement after a series of losses on Super Tuesday, and it left Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee.
Nic Antaya/Bloomberg/Getty Images
A volunteer holds a sign that says "vote uncommitted" outside of a polling station in Dearborn, Michigan, on February 27. Biden's victory in the Democratic primary came with a warning from progressives, young voters and Arab American Democrats
in the form of an "uncommitted" protest vote: change course on Israel's approach to the war in Gaza or risk losing a significant chunk of support in what could be a decisive general election state.
Alex Brandon/AP
Trump arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 24.
Trump declared himself a "proud political dissident" at CPAC, telling a conservative gathering that his reelection would be "liberation day" for his supporters and "judgment day" for his political enemies.
Hilary Swift/The New York Times/Redux
Supporters of a write-in campaign for Biden gather for an election night watch party in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 23. Biden was not among the 21 candidates listed on the ballot after New Hampshire defied the primary calendar set by the national Democratic Party. Despite not being on the ballot, Biden still won the primary.
Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Haley speaks to supporters at her election night watch party in Concord, New Hampshire, on January 23. She said she would remain in the race after losing the primary there to Trump.
David Goldman/AP
Kara Simard — with her 5-year-old daughter, Violet — casts a primary vote at a polling site in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 23.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
From left, first lady Jill Biden, President Biden, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff attend a campaign event in Manassas, Virginia, on January 23.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 20.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a town hall in Hampton, New Hampshire, on January 17. DeSantis edged out former Haley for a distant second-place finish in the Iowa Republican Caucuses, but
he dropped out of the race ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette/AP
Isaac Hammond braves subzero temperatures to caucus in Malcolm, Iowa, on January 15.
The caucuses were the coldest ever, with temperatures below zero across much of the state.
Will Lanzoni/CNN
DeSantis and Haley take part in a
CNN debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10.
“I can’t imagine, I can’t even get my mind around what it would be like if Donald Trump won, because he is telling us such dark and sinister things that he’s going to do, and I believe him,” Sen. Cory Booker told CNN after a campaign stop late Monday afternoon in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – one of the key swing districts in the crucial battleground state.
The New Jersey Democrat said he had already warned his own staff about not giving up.
“We need to get up the next morning and forge forward,” Booker said. “I told them how much I don’t like hearing people say, ‘Oh, if so-and-so wins, I’m going to go to Canada. That’s just not our history. We’ve seen really bad outcomes out of bad historical events in our country, and we’re here because of the resiliency, the toughness, the strength of our country — and people even in the worst of times dug in and tried to do the best for our country.”
Simmering internal fights and a revealing pick in Walz
Harris’ team would have gladly taken more time to introduce the vice president to the country, or to put together an operation, which, after the ticket switch in July, woke up every morning at campaign headquarters and in the states feeling behind on planning.
But by the time the campaign pulled off its multi-state simultaneous rally across battleground states Monday evening – which ended with Lady Gaga singing her song “The Edge of Glory” and adding in, “I’m an American woman on the edge” on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art – a nervous feeling of maybe having made a movement happen was spreading among Harris aides and top supporters.
Those aides were a hodgepodge. Biden hadn’t just struggled as a candidate, but had failed to attract some top talent to his campaign because a generation of up-and-coming Democrats could never get excited about him. Harris tried to graft some of her own team onto them, even overlooking tensions between them from the early days of the Biden administration with campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and keeping her in charge.
But some of those who had been in Wilmington for a year before Harris became the candidate bucked at their new bosses. Alumni of Barack Obama – most prominently his 2008, campaign manager David Plouffe, but also many others who moved into state operations – tried to flex a sometimes dated but often more incisive sense of how to win voters.
Along the way, multiple aides told CNN how much they were grinding on one another. But the mission to beat Trump and the short timeline to try to get there helped paper over a lot of the infighting that might have exploded in a longer campaign. It instead just raged behind the scenes as aides like Stephanie Cutter moved to exert dominance over defining how and what Harris said what she said.
And those tensions manifested from almost the start of this short campaign, in the internal wrangling over who Harris should pick as her running mate. The case for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was strong, and not just because Harris’ brother-in-law Tony West was telling her they looked like the future of the Democratic Party together, and that the popular governor would make sure she won Pennsylvania. Right-wing media types weren’t the only ones who noticed how much Shapiro had made himself into an Obama clone, as much a Jewish guy from the Philadelphia suburbs could be: The Obama alumni suddenly rushing onto her campaign were pushing for Shapiro.
Harris liked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, though. She liked his line about Republicans being weird. She liked the way he came off as easy and unassuming. She liked the way they’d gotten along in their interview, including his very open stress that he would mess up in a debate with Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. And she liked the way Walz had been so deferential to however she would define the job for him.
Vincent Alban/Reuters
Walz campaigns the day before election day, in West Ellis, Wisconsin, on November 4.
In the end, Harris made a decision that simultaneously reflected her newfound confidence and her long-standing insecurity, solid with trusting her own instincts, fine with going against her family and against the Obama orbit, but also with no interest in having anyone who would possibly outshine her.
Then, as top aides kept Harris away from interviews and unscripted moments for weeks longer than many on the campaign thought made sense, Walz was necessarily kept in a box too, so that he didn’t come off more accessible than she was.
Tuesday morning, outside a canvas launch in northeast Philadelphia, Shapiro deflected a question about whether Pennsylvania — and the race — would have looked different had he been the choice.
“I think she made a great pick in Tim Walz,” he said.
Biden, most Democrats were confident going into Tuesday, would have never even been in contention. The president watched the results come in from the White House, making a few calls to local winning candidates back in Delaware. Some who spoke with him as he made the decision to drop out in July briefly lingered on what might have been – maybe he could have won by keeping his numbers even in counties where he ended up outperforming Harris, or if he’d lost anyway, at least it wouldn’t have put the burden on a Black woman. He said nothing publicly.
Harris ran on positivity. She ran on inclusivity. She convinced a party full of insiders who had gone into the year ready to write her off for the 2028 Democratic nomination that they should go all in on her for 2024.
At the beginning of the night Tuesday, when victory seemed just hours away, the people who came to what was supposed to be Harris’ celebration were dancing. A Howard University graduate seemed about to walk into history in the heart of her old HBCU campus. At one point, the camera found the student body president in the crowd and she blushed as she saw herself projected on the big screen. Anticipation mounted and cheers went out with every state called for Harris.
Seconds after North Carolina was called for Trump, the audio was switched off the big screens and music blasted through the speakers to try to salvage the energy. Most kept staring silently at the numbers, trying to make sense of what had happened.
Austin Steele/CNN
Attendees react to election results at Howard University in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, November 5.
In state capitals with Democratic governors, break-glass plans that they had started to believe they would never need are getting yanked off the shelves – to protect access to abortion medications, but also to work up other protections from what they believe will be not just a stringent, but vindictive, administration. Early thoughts about who will be running and how in 2028 are starting to circulate.
That was not on the minds of the people who started streaming out of the Howard campus early Wednesday before campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond had even finished telling them that there was still counting to be done.
“We try to do it right, we try to be good Christians,” one woman said to the man walking with her. “We’ve got to take a page out of their book.”