Vice President Kamala Harris sought to ease disappointment and offer words of strength to hundreds of supporters as she conceded the presidential election on Wednesday, with some of her supporters wiping away tears as she spoke.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say … the light of America’s promise will always burn bright,” Harris said in a speech to her. alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC
Harris offered to console Democrats over the loss of former President Donald Trump, acknowledging they were “feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now.”
But she emphasized that Democrats had to accept the outcome of the election to preserve democracy. Harris admitted defeat on Wednesday. Trump never did that when he lost to Joe Biden and Harris in 2020.
“Earlier today I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will assist him and his team in their transition and that we will participate in a peaceful transfer of power,” she said. a cheer from the crowd.
Harris’ concession capped a tumultuous and difficult campaign. She abruptly replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic list just fifteen weeks before Election Day. Her rival narrowly dodged a would-be assassin’s bullet, followed nine weeks later by a second apparent attempt to kill him. And she endured months of razor-thin election margins that put the country on edge.
Her loss marked a realignment in the Democratic coalition, with Trump and Republicans expanding their reach deeper into new parts of the electorate, including Latinos. That was despite Trump encouraging the chaotic, divisive MAGA politics that has come to define the Republican Party since its emergence as a political force in the 2016 elections.
Ultimately, Harris faced serious economic concerns and voters wanting change, and she could not overcome the dark tactics of Trump’s movement, which sought to portray her as unstable, a traitor and a danger to society through a flood of lies and racist statements. and disinformation. Trump himself leaned on violent rhetoric, pointing to a gunman who shot at reporters covering his rallies or the idea that guns would be pointed at a former Republican U.S. representative turned critic if she were sent to war.
Harris, 60, sought to thwart those attacks with a message that combined joy and determination — in which she implored the audience to “lift people up” as she embraced her career as a hardened prosecutor — and a stark warning: that Trump, 78, is destroying the country would rule as an authoritarian.
However, the electorate responded with a decisive victory for Trump, amid an economy still recovering from Covid and inflation and dissatisfaction with the country’s direction.
Harris, a former U.S. senator and attorney general from California who led the way as the first female vice president, set her party on fire when she entered the presidential race. Democrats were despondent when Biden went from ineffective to severely damaged after his only debate against Trump.
After Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, Democrats reveled in the change, flooding donation channels and shattering fundraising records. Harris cultivated a forward-looking identity, trying to break away from the unpopular president she still served with and from the policies that failed to compel Americans.
But in the end, maybe she didn’t back off enough.
Harris had put forward policy ambitions that promised to restore women’s access to abortion and promise a “care economy” that would help new homebuyers, parents of young children and older Americans. To address one of the Biden administration’s biggest vulnerabilities among voters, it pledged to be tough on illegal immigration, pledging more resources for border enforcement while pledging to streamline the legal quagmire for asylum seekers and improve pathways to citizenship.
Reproductive rights were at the heart of her argument. Time and time again, Harris sought to harness the anger and energy behind Trump’s driving the demise of Roe v. Wade. In rallies, interviews and advertisements, she laid America’s most restrictive state laws at his feet, calling them “Trump abortion bans.” A lasting image of her only debate with Trump — in which she seemed the most powerful and disciplined candidate — came when she described a woman suffering a miscarriage who was denied emergency room care as “bleeding in a parking lot.” .
What Harris failed to highlight was the historic nature of her candidacy, unlike Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Trump. But she was acutely aware of what her election would mean. In an interview with NBC News on October 22, Harris stated that the country was “absolutely” ready for a woman as president and was also eager to leave an era of division behind it.
“I see that in all walks of life in our country,” she said at the time. “Part of what is important in this election is not just turning the page, but closing the page and closing the chapter on an era that suggests Americans are divided.”
But many deep within the MAGA movement saw her as a threat, and Harris could not overcome the deep divisions and polarization that have come to define American elections.
Just a week before the election, standing before an estimated 45,000 supporters at the Ellipse in Washington, with the White House in the background, Harris blatantly recalled the place where Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, in what preceded a violent action. attack by a crowd of his supporters on the US Capitol.
“America, we have been consumed with too much division, chaos and mutual distrust for too long, and so it can be easy to forget a simple truth: It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Harris said on that crisp fall evening, in what would be seen as her closing argument. “It’s time to stop pointing fingers. We need to stop pointing fingers and start closing arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and conflict, fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am prepared to provide that leadership as the next President of the United States of America.”
An accelerated campaign
Harris got to this point after a series of extraordinary events.
The crisis point for Democrats was Biden’s performance during the June 27 debate with Trump. It was Biden who challenged Trump to debate him early. Democrats raised expectations that Biden would for once put aside questions about his cognitive health.
It turned out spectacularly. Biden struggled to speak clearly, staring blankly into the distance and at times being incoherent — at one point declaring that Democrats had “finally defeated Medicare.”
While Democrats were in turmoil, Republicans united after Trump was struck by a bullet while speaking at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Visibly bleeding and with Secret Service agents surrounding him, Trump pumped his fist in the air and shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” creating an instantly iconic image.
The Republican Party’s energy soared, and Democrats worried that the election was all but lost.
The Biden campaign veered off course, causing an eruption of party panic. One by one, congressional leaders called on Biden to step aside until a critical mass emerged, with Rep. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, worked behind the scenes to push for his departure. Campaign insiders doubted there was a path forward as fundraising dried up, severely hampering the necessary scale-up in the latter part of a presidential contest.
With that, Biden announced his departure from the race on July 21, endorsing Harris.
After Harris’ concession speech Wednesday, Biden reiterated his support for his vice president, praising her and saying that selecting her as his No. 2 was “the best decision” he made.
“What America saw today was the Kamala Harris that I know and deeply admire,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden said Wednesday that Harris will continue to be a “leader that our children will look up to for generations to come as she makes her mark on America’s future.” “
Less than a month after Biden’s withdrawal from the race, a revamped Democratic National Convention took place in Chicago, where an excited party celebrated a Black woman who showed promise in defeating Trump. It was a remarkable resurgence after Harris’ first presidential bid, when she abandoned her bid for the Democratic nomination before the 2019 Iowa caucuses.
Harris’ entry transformed the dynamics of the race — literally overnight — expanding the competitive edge for Democrats beyond the so-called blue wall states, skyrocketing enthusiasm and bringing in dozens of volunteers and new voter registrations. These efforts were made possible by a record pace of fundraising that ultimately exceeded $1.4 billion.
Suddenly, the sleepy events surrounding Biden were gone, and with Harris, the campaign booked large-scale venues for mass rallies that drew at least 10,000 people in each of the swing states. Harris also brought in star power, with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and others lending their influential voices to support her in some way.
Trump struggled to adjust to his new opponent, became publicly irritated over her entrance and made a series of missteps that left him with some voters. He questioned Harris’ race and launched gender-based attacks on her, struggled against her in his only debate and delved into debunked conspiracy theories that culminated in his declaration that Haitian immigrants in Ohio ate pets.
Memorably, Harris offered a stinging rebuttal to Trump’s insistence during the debate that he had won the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said. “It’s clear he’s having a really hard time processing that.”
But Trump managed to connect with working-class voters across racial and ethnic groups and retain a large number of men.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
