Democrats across the country were in disbelief and searching for answers as they faced the reality of another Donald Trump presidency.

Trump’s victory was announced early Wednesday morning, marking a major political comeback that sent shockwaves around the world.

With Kamala Harris’ chances of winning dwindling, the vice president decided not to address her supporters gathered at Howard University in Washington DC on Tuesday evening, instead scheduling an address for Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, Democratic activists, strategists and others filled the void, voicing their disappointment and already beginning to figure out what went wrong for Harris and the Democratic Party.

Democratic pollster Paul Maslin argued that Harris did as well as she could have given the environment and circumstances. Harris “did a really good job,” Maslin told Politico, but ultimately “this race was unwinnable.”

“Trump, whether rightly or wrongly, his personality and his fundamental line of attack against the state of the country, the Biden-Harris administration and, frankly, the Democratic Party, was ultimately unbeatable,” he said.

CNN national political correspondent Alex Thompson noted that a former adviser to Joe Biden criticized the Harris campaign and asked, “How do you spend $1 billion and not win?”

Others, Thompson said, have suggested Biden should have ended the race sooner.

He said a longtime Democratic official told him the party was “sleepwalking into disaster” Tuesday night, adding that “changing the pitcher in the sixth inning wasn’t enough and that Kamala Harris did as good a job as that.” she could have done.” “.

Mark Longabaugh, a veteran Democratic strategist who previously advised Sen. Bernie Sanders, also said Harris was handed the reins “too late,” adding that it was a “difficult environment,” according to Politico.

NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker also mentioned the potential impact of the timing of Biden’s decision to step down, after the presidential debate rather than before.

“Even over the summer, there was so much discussion about the possibility of an open primary and having that fight within the Democratic Party,” Welker said. “I think that’s one of the big questions for the future.”

Others, like Lindy Li, a senior Democratic official in Pennsylvania, wonder whether the outcome would have been different if Harris had chosen a different vice presidential candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Li argued on Fox News that the moderate Shapiro had conveyed to American voters that Harris was not the “San Francisco liberal” that Trump portrayed her as. “But she went with someone who was actually to the left of her,” Li said, referring to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Harris picked as her running mate.

Li also criticized the Harris campaign for not sufficiently distinguishing Harris from Biden, a point echoed by other activists and commentators in recent weeks.

Some pointed to Harris’ appearance on talk show “The View” when she was asked if she would have done anything differently than Biden, and replied, “There’s nothing that comes to mind.”

Those comments were quickly seized upon by the Trump campaign and Republicans, who used them as an opportunity to link Harris to Biden’s unpopularity and blame her for the administration’s challenges related to immigration, inflation and more.

On MSNBC Tuesday night, commentator Joy Reid expressed her disappointment with white women in North Carolina who did not vote for Harris, contributing to the Democrat’s loss in the swing state.

“Ultimately they didn’t hit their numbers, we have to be open about why,” Reid said. “Black voters came through for Harris, white voters didn’t. That’s exactly what seems to have happened.”

Ahead of Election Day, Van Jones, a CNN contributor and former adviser to Barack Obama, had criticized Harris’ high-profile appearances at campaign rallies, arguing that they were not the best use of supporters’ time.

“I don’t think people understand that sometimes professionals have to choose: Do I go to the big, cool concert and pay for babysitting, or do I find a way to get to the polls?” Jones said. “I don’t like these big, star-studded events.

“I don’t want people to go to concerts. I want people out there knocking on doors, I want people out there fighting for this cause,” he added. “I’m just nervous, nervous, nervous.”

David Sirota, senior adviser to Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, described Tuesday evening as a “very bad night.”

“Some of us have been warning Democrats for years to take working-class politics more seriously and not to pander to neoconservatives,” he said. “We did this in the hope of avoiding this, and yet we were vilified as traitors by Democratic elites and liberal pundits.

“There’s a lesson here.”

Another former Sanders staffer, Jeff Weaver, told Politico that the Democratic Party now needs to “restore its relationship with the working class.”

Until Wednesday morning, most Democratic lawmakers remained silent about the election outcome, perhaps waiting for Harris to address the nation, which she is expected to do Wednesday afternoon.

Read more of the Guardian’s coverage of the 2024 US election