>> It's election eve.

The vice president is spending the final hours of her campaign at her alma mater, Howard University.

The stage is almost set for what is sure to be a historic moment at the Harris headquarters.

>> This is history in the making, as Howard University is welcoming back one of their own for what could be one of the biggest nights of her life, and the lives of many watching on.

National polls such as PBS and Marist have Vice President Harris currently leading by four points.

>> As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump make their final pitches to voters, both campaigns are engaging in an absolute battleground blitz today.

The keynote state, Pennsylvania, is up for grabs and many view it as a must-win state for either candidate.

>> Momentum is on our side.

Momentum is on our side.

Can you feel it?

We have momentum, right?

>> You know, they have an expression.

I hate the expression, actually, but it's ours to lose.

>> This race is unbelievably close right now as we take a closer look at these states.

It's clear that it's going to come down to the blue wall.

>> If Kamala Harris is able to win Wisconsin and Michigan, the so-called Blue Wall, her only way of getting to the presidency is through Pennsylvania.

Now, even if she was able to win here in Nevada, if she loses Pennsylvania, Trump still wins.

Same thing, even Arizona.

If she's able to win there, she still needs to win in Pennsylvania.

So for the Democrats, the Keystone State is absolutely critical.

>> We could have a knockdown, drag out battle here, or someone could sweep them, as Biden did in 2020.

It is so hard to tell at this exact moment.

I've never seen a group of battleground states this close.

It is a virtual tie all within the margin of error.

People at home be prepared for anything to happen tomorrow.

>> Well, I'm nervous.

Either way, the election goes, right?

I know that if it goes one way, then there's a lot of high chance of, like, violent protests or insurrection or rioting and things like that in response and retaliation.

And if it goes another way, I just fear for my, my health, my future, my safety as a citizen of this country.

>> Um, I'm very excited.

I'm really hoping history is made tonight and just, like, excited to see the community come together.

>> Just seeing what Kamala Harris and seeing the position she's in, it just shows how like it just shows how great Black excellence can be, so yeah.

>> Um, definitely a little nervous about maybe the outcome of the election.

Um, I think like, women's bodily autonomy is really important, and I think it can go one of two ways with the election, but I'm really excited to see if she's elected, what she can do.

>> Just, uh, if it doesn't turn out the way, like, focus on the stuff that you can control, >> It's not gonna happen, but if it did, I'd be pretty disappointed.

But, you know, just gotta work on the next four years, you know?

>> Hmm.

My name is Christiana Bennett, and I feel uneasy about this election.

I don't like the current state of affairs with the foreign policy of this administration.

So, I am a big fan of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Institute, especially its emphasis on self-determination and vocational training.

And in regards to this entire election cycle, regardless of whether, you know, you vote Democrat or Republican, we as human beings, as a community, as the Black community, the demographic, whatever, we should not be entirely dependent on the circumstances of an election to, you know, for our people to see progress.

>> What is typically a yard full of students hanging out, gathering for lunch, studying or prepping for a homecoming yard fest is currently jam packed with press, security, and a whole lot of buzz.

The vice president has decided to spend election night here at Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall, a moment certain to be significant in the lives of many and one university officials are calling a full circle moment.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Please welcome the president of Howard University, Dr. Ben Vinson.

>> Good evening, everyone.

Let's give it up one more time for Miss Howard and the Howard Gospel Choir.

They were amazing.

Well, everyone, welcome to Howard University.

You know, tonight you stand on proud, hallowed ground.

You bask in the shade of our trees.

Each tree is a symbol.

Many of these trees stand for the Divine Nine, Black sororities and fraternities built at the dawn of the 20th century to unify and fortify the soul and spirit and to embrace culture among us.

The yard you stand in, the ground you stand on nourishes excellence.

And the buildings surrounding you are used to teach and empower generations.

Tonight our yard is open in unity for all people.

People of all races, creeds, gender, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Tonight, as our nation votes, we at Howard are proud and honored to be able to host our alumna and welcome her home.

♪♪ >> Who are we as a country?

And we're starting to find out.

>> The uphill battle for the vice president currently is President Biden's approval ratings.

Six in every ten voters in Wisconsin disapprove of the president.

It has been brutal, and that is quite the headwind for Harris.

This is a number that the campaign is hoping doesn't bleed into the votes.

The crowd at Howard is starting to quiet down as these early numbers begin to stream in.

>> Jen O'Malley Dillon, who sent out a memo to her staff tonight laying out what they see ahead in the coming days and hours.

And my colleague Jeff Zeleny is here with me.

The memo essentially says, Jake, that the returns are coming in slowly.

They still see their path, but that path is largely going to be through the blue wall, as Jeff and I were just discussing.

She says to her staff, we are built for this.

Let's finish the night out.

We will see you tomorrow.

They are not expecting this to be wrapped up tonight.

>> They are not because the margins are so small.

And just reading from that memo, should we have known all along our clearest path to 270 was through the blue wall state?

>> This is kind of what we've already expected.

You know, like, of course, Texas and Florida are going to go Trump.

Of course, New York and we'll just say California are going to go Harris.

So I don't think that we're getting anything that we haven't expected.

I want to see what happens with these swing states.

Like what is, um, what's Pennsylvania going to do?

>> The Associated Press and CNN are projecting that Donald Trump will win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

This is a huge, huge win for the Donald Trump campaign and a large amount of electoral votes, 19 of them on his hopeful path back to the presidency.

>> The Harris campaign is saying that while they don't rule out any other possibilities, they were really banking on the blue wall.

And at this moment, as we speak, two out of the three of those states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, are red.

>> The central question hanging over all of our heads in the stunned crowd at Howard is, will Vice President Harris be coming out to address the crowd?

♪♪ >> This is Kamala Harris' great line of pledge line.

These are all her [Indistinct] A whole bunch of them are here, and we are in it to win it.

And we're not worried right now with what's going on right now.

We have faith over fear.

You hear me?

Faith over fear.

>> Donald J Trump is within a hair's breadth of becoming the 47th president of the United States.

>> In no uncertain terms, the vice president's path to the presidency is all but blocked.

>> Donald Trump has not officially crossed the finish line, but things are looking awfully bleak for the Harris campaign.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Please welcome Harris for President campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond.

>> Good evening, Howard.

[ Cheers and applause ] Good evening, HU.

I want to say good evening to all of the Harris campaign, the campaign family.

Thank you for all that you have done.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for believing in the promise of America.

We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken.

So you won't hear from the Vice President tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.

She will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters, but to address the nation.

Thank you all.

[ Cheers and applause ] >> Tens of thousands of supporters of the Vice President poured into the yard at Howard University to witness what they hoped would be a victory speech.

But as state by state was called this evening, it became evident that may not have been the case.

They leave in total shock and disbelief and plan to return tomorrow for what will almost certainly be a concession speech.

This is a disappointment of epic proportions as battleground state after battleground state fell to Donald Trump.

The crowd here is as dejected as they come.

This will take a lot of introspection and time sorting out as to what happened during this 107 day campaign.

>> Total shock and disbelief would be the words used to describe the scene here at Howard University last night, and today it is beginning to sink in.

>> A source told me it appears the caveats won, one source telling me that their stomach is in knots.

Campaign officials are visibly shaken and gloomy, and that it was the results that came in from Pennsylvania that was the final nail in the coffin.

The vice president will be speaking at her alma mater here at Howard University at 4 p.m. >> I mean, obviously, it's a tough day, you know, not what people wanted, not what people expected.

But, you know, as a Howard senior, as a Howard student, I'm still proud of her.

You know, I feel like she was an inspiration to a lot of people.

I feel like she ran a great campaign.

I feel like she ran a clean campaign, and I think it reinforced the narrative that, you know, you can get anywhere from an HBCU.

So I'm still proud of her.

>> Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

Kamala!

>> Please welcome the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So let me say... And I love you back and I love you back.

So let me say my heart is full today.

My heart is full today.

Full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me.

Full of love for our country and full of resolve.

The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for.

But hear me when I say, hear me when I say the light of America's promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.

[ Cheers and applause ] To my beloved Doug and our family, I love you so very much.

To President Biden and Dr. Biden, thank you for your faith and support.

To Governor Walz and the Walz family, I know your service to our nation will continue.

[ Cheers and applause ] And to my extraordinary team, to the volunteers who gave so much of themselves, to the poll workers and the local election officials, I thank you.

I thank you all.

Look, I am so proud of the race we ran and the way we ran it, and the way we ran it.

Over the 107 days of this campaign, we have been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background.

United by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America's future.

And we did it with the knowledge that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.

Now, I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now.

I get it.

But we must accept the results of this election.

Earlier today, I spoke with President-Elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory.

I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition, and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.

[ Cheers and applause ] A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results.

That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.

And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.

At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.

[ Cheers and applause ] And loyalty to our conscience and to our God.

My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.

[ Cheers and applause ] The fight, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people, a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation.

The ideals that reflect America at our best.

That is a fight I will never give up.

[ Cheers and applause ] I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions and aspirations, where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do.

We will never give up the fight to protect our schools and our streets from gun violence.

And America, we will never give up the fight for our democracy, for the rule of law, for equal justice, and for the sacred idea that every one of us, no matter who we are or where we start out, has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be respected and upheld.

[ Cheers and applause ] And we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.

And we will also wage it in quieter ways.

In how we live our lives, by treating one another with kindness and respect.

By looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor.

By always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve.

The fight for our freedom will take hard work.

But like I always say, we like hard work.

Hard work is good work.

Hard work can be joyful work, and the fight for our country is always worth it.

It is always worth it.

[ Cheers and applause ] To the young people who are watching, it is... [ Audience cheers ] I love you.

To the young people who are watching, it is okay to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it's going to be okay.

On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win.

But here's the thing.

Here's the thing.

Sometimes the fight takes a while.

That doesn't mean we won't win.

That doesn't mean we won't win.

The important thing is don't ever give up.

Don't ever give up.

Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place.

You have power.

You have power.

And don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.

[ Cheers and applause ] You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world.

And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair.

This is not a time to throw up our hands.

This is a time to roll up our sleeves.

This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.

Look, many of you know, I started out as a prosecutor, and throughout my career, I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives, people who had suffered great harm and great pain, and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand.

To take a stand.

To fight for justice.

To fight for themselves.

To fight for others.

So let their courage be our inspiration.

Let their determination be our charge.

And I'll close with this.

There's an adage an historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages.

The adage is only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.

I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case.

But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.

The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.

[ Cheers and applause ] HU!

And may that work guide us even in the face of setbacks toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.

I thank you all.

May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

I thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ >> The crowd that walked in, somber and in disarray, slowly walked away in slightly different spirits, following the vice president's inspiring remarks.

She pledged a peaceful transition as she stood outside the steps at Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall, the final sight of her at the Harris headquarters, here at Howard University.

♪♪