This story originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.
Vice President Kamala Harris' possible path to victory narrowed after former President Donald Trump won North Carolina's 16 electoral votes and Georgia's 16 votes.
Harris would now need to take all three of the "Blue Wall" states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to clinch a victory. But Trump is also leading in those states as many votes pour in.
Early on Wednesday morning, the Harris campaign official took to the stage at the vice president's watch party at Howard University, and announced that Harris would not be speaking there — at least not tonight.
“We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet," Richmond said. "We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken.” he said.
California Sen. Laphonza Butler, a close adviser to Harris, told NPR that she wasn’t surprised that it was all coming down to the "Blue Wall."
“We always knew that this was going to be a night when we needed to pack our patience. The vice president said from the very beginning that she was going to be running this race as an underdog,” Butler said.
“We’ve got to let the process play out. I feel good about where we are," she said.
The Harris campaign had long insisted that it saw multiple paths to victory. But earlier on Tuesday, campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon sent a memo to staff saying their path forward was most likely through the "Blue Wall."
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