By MJ Lee

CNN National Politics Reporter

NEW YORK (CNN) -- At Hillary Clinton's election night party in Manhattan, her supporters grew tense. Before long, they were despondent.

As the returns trickled in on Tuesday, the thousands who were gathered at the Javits Convention Center to celebrate a historic victory started to realize that something was wrong. Virginia was much too close. Clinton was falling behind in Florida. Wisconsin -- a state that the Clinton campaign considered to be in the bag -- was too close to call.

Well before midnight and still hours before the 2016 presidential race would be called, Clinton supporters began to leave.

Descending the steps down to the ground floor and walking out through the glass doors into the chilly night, some were crying and others were consoling family and friends. Many looked shell-shocked -- unable to comprehend that the woman they believed would become the country's next president was going to be defeated by Donald Trump.

One woman named Kerry wept as she headed toward the exits, saying she had to hurry home to her 16-year-old daughter.

"Because I promised her hope. I promised her hope. And this man is despicable," she said, her words broken between sobs. "I don't know what happened. I'm so disappointed in this country, and I don't know what to say to her. I don't know what to tell her."

Kerry, who does IT work at a school and lives outside of New York City, said before walking away that she was "horrified" for her daughter.

Ginny Barahona Marana also left early with her elderly mother in tow. Barahona Marana said she wasn't sure what the country would look like under a President Trump.

"What's going to happen in the Supreme Court? What's going to happen with policy?" she said. "If he should become president, it's not somebody who cares about all Americans. It's somebody who cares about some Americans."

As she explained that she is half-Latino and half-Asian, Barahona Marana said almost sheepishly: "I'm the margin that was supposed to bring this in."

Inside the Javits Center, the shock was not only contained to Clinton supporters, staff and volunteers. It also reverberated through the press. Huddled together, journalists, too, expressed disbelief at what increasingly appeared would be a Trump victory.

One reporter said the entire evening felt like an out-of-body experience; another wondered if the night could be a dream.

At 2 a.m., Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, took the podium, on a stage shaped like the United States.

"It's been a long night, and it's been a long campaign. But I can say, we can wait a little longer, can't we?" he said.

Podesta said more votes needed to be counted, and that the conversation should continue the next day.

"Everybody should head home. You should get some sleep," he said.

Even before Podesta was done speaking, people began to walk out, exposing more beige-gray carpet now littered with plastic cups and crushed Dasani water bottles.