WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the 2024 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump Wednesday and encouraged her supporters to accept the results.
Nearly 14 hours after Trump declared victory early Wednesday morning, Harris addressed supporters gathered at Howard University in Washington, D.C., her alma mater.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” Harris said. “But 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.”
Harris said she spoke with Trump via telephone earlier in the day, congratulating him and offering support to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
She noted her loyalty is “not to a president or to a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and to our conscience, and to our God.”
“My allegiance to all three, is why I am here to say: while I am here to concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she added.
On Tuesday, millions of Americans rejected Harris’ vision for the country. What was expected to be a margin-of-error race, perhaps extending a week beyond Election Day to decide, was instead a single-night onslaught: Trump secured a sweep of all seven battleground states, and for only the second time since 1988, the Republican candidate won the popular vote.
In discussions with attendees at Harris’ speech, culprits for Harris’ loss were many. Some blamed widespread pessimism about the country’s economy and Harris’ apparent inability to speak to those concerns. “I think a lot of voters are really concerned about our economy right now, which, it makes sense,” said Chloe Skinner, a student at Howard. Others, like John Woodland Jr., suggested the country “has an issue when it comes to women in charge, especially a woman of color.”
Others, with the gift of a night and morning of hindsight, suggest that Harris’ campaign was doomed from the start. “I feel as though the Democratic Party did her really dirty,” said Seynabou Diop, a student at Howard. If Biden would have relinquished the ticket sooner, or if Democrats would have held a primary, or if Biden never ran for reelection to begin with — “if she was given more time,” Diop said, “I feel as though it could have gone a whole different direction.”
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, has to wonder, too. He was there Wednesday, emerging a day after his party saw a massive electoral sweep: Democrats lost the White House and the Senate, and it appears Republicans will maintain control of the House.
An hour before Harris took the lectern, Harrison walked down Barry Place, a side street near Howard’s campus, headed toward the event. He looked as if he formed part of a funeral procession — head dipped, eyes somber, shuffling slowly. Some passersby stopped to greet him. “Thanks for all you did,” one in a HARRIS-WALZ T-shirt said. Harrison was gracious — he shook hands and offered slight nods of his head. But he didn’t say a word.
If the vice president lays the blame for her loss at Harrison’s and Biden’s feet, she didn’t show it Wednesday. There was no effort to litigate her loss, nor any suggestion she was bitter for how things panned out. “I know folks are feeling a range of emotions right now. I get it,” Harris said. “But we must accept the results of this election.”
She encouraged her supporters to treat others “with kindness and respect” and to “fight for the dignity of all people.”
After her speech, hundreds of her followers lingered, some visibly emotional. Men and women in lanyards labeling them as campaign volunteers hugged and cried. One woman asked to end an interview short with me after she burst into tears when I asked her impression of Harris’ speech. “I think, in some ways, (watching her speech) was much harder than watching the elections yesterday, because it was just so tangible right now in terms of what could have been, but now it isn’t,” said Ezra Kang, a faculty member at Howard.
Diop and Skinner, the two Howard students, maintained a more optimistic outlook. “I’m so proud of the work that (Harris) put in,” Diop said. The two women, both juniors, stayed at the election night watch party until early Wednesday morning; that evening, when Harris returned to offer her concession speech, they knew they wanted to come back. “Although the result was not in our favor, we’re still young,” Skinner said. “We still have voices. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next four, eight years, but showing up and still trying is so important. And I can’t give up for that, no matter what.”
