Kamala Harris concedes to Trump but urges her supporters to 'never give up' | US elections 2024

Kamala Harris formally conceded the election to Donald Trump on Wednesday and urged Americans devastated by the result “not to despair” but to remain committed and vigilant in the fight to protect American democracy.

Under a dramatic yellow sky, the vice president took the stage while shouting “Kamala!” from the grounds of her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington. The speech came in the afternoon after Trump received more than 270 votes to win the Electoral College. Four years after his refusal to relinquish power, he staged a stunning political comeback, culminating in a violent attack on the seat of the American government.

“While I concede this election, I do not admit the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris said, his voice hoarse after a tumultuous 13-week campaign. “Hear me when I say: The light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up.”

Harris previously called Trump to congratulate him on his victory and promised that the Biden administration would “implement a peaceful transfer of power.” As vice president, she will assume the ceremonial role of president of the Senate when Trump's victory is confirmed in January.

“In our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States,” Harris said, drawing loud applause as she pledged to support Trump's team in the transition to the White House.

Harris appeared to acknowledge the fear of her supporters, who echoed her warnings that Trump posed an existential threat to the future of American democracy and the planet. But she said now is not the time to “throw your hands up.”

“This is a time of organizing, mobilizing and engaging for freedom and justice and the future we all know we can build together,” she said.

The vice president's public concession marked the end of a turbulent election that lasted just over 100 days, the shortest in modern history, after the president resigned just weeks before the party's summer convention, effectively naming her his successor.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Trump, the twice-impeached former president convicted of dozens of crimes and accused of many more, had won at least five of the seven battleground states and was on track to win the popular vote. Unlike 2016, when Trump won a surprise election victory against Hillary Clinton but lost the popular vote, he will return to power with what he called an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

Republicans easily managed to gerrymander the US Senate and appeared within reach of retaining control of the US House of Representatives, a scenario that would give Trump's party control of all levels of elected government in Washington.

The Howard address was Harris' first public appearance since Tuesday afternoon, when she stopped by the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington to thank phone bankers who worked to stop the vote before the polls closed. Later that evening, supporters were waiting for her at the campaign's campus watch party. But as hope turned to despair, a campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, showed up instead to tell attendees she wouldn't be speaking.

On Wednesday, several of Harris' supporters said, many of them tearfully, that they had come to say a painful goodbye to Harris' historic candidacy — and to a presidential candidate they had hoped would finally meet the “highest, hardest” glass ceiling of the country would break through.

“I've been at it for a long time and this time I really thought we could do it,” said Joanne Howes, Founding member of Emily's List, an influential fundraising group that supports Democratic candidates who support abortion rights. “We will be sad and sad, but then we have to get back up. We cannot simply accept that our democracy is at an end.”

Harris, the first Black woman and first South Asian to become a major political party's presidential nominee, ran a carefully choreographed campaign, lavishing battleground states with visits and television ads while also engaging in traditional Democratic election efforts, including phone banking and door-knocking . On the Saturday before the election, her campaign said people in crucial Pennsylvania had knocked on more than 800,000 doors – a number that was more than 10 times Biden's 2020 victory in the state. On Monday, the vice president even knocked on a few doors herself.

Harris framed her campaign around the theme of freedom, promising to be a president for “all Americans.” She sought to present an optimistic, forward-looking vision that addressed Americans' pervasive economic fears while warning of the threat Trump posed to democratic institutions.

Opinion polls showed an extremely close race throughout most of the campaign, in stark contrast to Trump's decisive victory. Her campaign had signaled optimism in recent days, pointing to data that she said showed undecided voters were making their way after a racist joke at Trump's grievance-fueled rally at Madison Square Garden sparked a backlash among Puerto Rican celebrities and artists had triggered. At her campaign's final rally in Philadelphia, Ricky Martin appeared and Fat Joe implored his fellow Latinos to support Harris: “When is enough enough?”

But the country was angry and disillusioned, angry at the incumbent party and hungry for change, which it saw in the norm-busting former president. In the end, Trump was able to make gains in almost every part of the country and in almost every demographic group.

As Harris stood outside the campus's Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall on Wednesday, he spoke directly to the young people watching. “During the election campaign I often said: 'If 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,” she said.

Concluding her brief remarks, Harris, who describes herself as a “joyful warrior,” invoked what she called the “law of history,” quoting the saying: “Only when it's dark enough can you see the stars.” .”

“I know many people feel that we are entering a dark time – and for everyone’s sake, I hope that is not the case,” she said. “But America, if it is so, let us fill the sky with the light of a billion bright stars. The light of optimism, faith, truth and service.”

Beyoncé's Freedom played one last time as the vice president turned from the lectern and left the stage.

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