Harris concedes after Trump’s stunning reelection
After an intense presidential campaign that ended with a stunning defeat, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a concession speech to America one day after Donald Trump scored a decisive victory during an election that saw Republicans regain control of the U.S. Senate and possibly the U.S. House Representatives.
Standing before thousands of supports on the campus of her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., Harris said she called President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. Harris said she promised to Trump that she will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she told supporters, many of them in tears.
“I’m here today to show love and respect for her … for what she’s done,” said Donna Bruce, 72. Bruce said she had just seen a little girl with a T-shirt that said: “A Black girl will save the world.”
“I still believe that,” Bruce said. “It may not be this Black girl, but I believe a Black girl will.”
Harris addressed a crowd that included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aides in President Joe Biden’s White House and thousands of fans. Harris’ campaign anthem, Beyonce’s “Freedom,” played as she entered the stage.
Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, joined the crowd.
Harris encouraged her supporters, especially young people, not to give up even in their disappointment.
“Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win,” she said.
The mood at Howard Wednesday was mixed as many supporters continued to process Harris’ surprising defeat in the General Election, where Trump swept all seven battleground states to win 295 votes to Harris’ 226 in the Electoral College.
Trump’s victory smashed Harris’ hopes of becoming America’s first Black female president who raised over a $1 billion in three months after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July and bsparked an intense political campaign that rode a wave of momentum fueled by wealthy and powerful Hollywood donors and business tycoons.
But that support wasn’t enough to help Harris and as voters took their concerns of inflation, immigration and foreign wars to the polls and voted for Trump.
Numerous opinion polls indicated that it would be a close race between Harris and Trump by as little as one percentage point. But in cities and rural areas, Harris on Election Day underperformed among every ethnic group, including Blacks. Unlike Biden in the 2020 election, Harris lost the key swing states that she needed to come out on top. She lost Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. Despite heavy campaigning and spending over $600 million in Pennsylvania, the largest swing state, Harris lost by nearly 130,000 votes.
In Michigan, some believe Harris lost because of her public support for Israel during its war in Gaza. Many Muslims in Dearborn vowed to vote against Harris at the polls. On Tuesday in Dearborn, where 55 percent of the residents are of Middle Eastern descent, Trump won with 42.48 percent of the vote over Harris, who received 36.26 percent. Green Party presidential Jill Stein received 18.37 percent of the vote.
Harris’s defeat may fuel concerns that racial tensions will reemerge, and that Blacks in America will take a step backwards after years of civil rights and voting rights gains in America. Throughout her campaign, Harris and her supporters chanted “We’re not going back.”
But exit polls from NBC News show that Harris received less support from Black men than Biden did in the 2020 race. In Pennsylvania, only 72 percent of Black male voters supported Harris while 26 percent voted for Trump. In Nevada, 23 percent of Black men voted for Trump and in North Carolina, 20 percent supported Trump while 78 percent voted for Harris. The biggest surprise of the night was that 60 percent of Latino men in North Carolina voted for Trump, despite his hardline stance on immigration and his party’s verbal attacks on Latinos.
Hopes were also high that white women voters would support Harris at the polls because of her campaign message pushing for abortion rights and reproduction freedoms. But exit polls show that 51 percent of white women supported Trump at the ballot box.
The exit polls show that Harris received the highest support from Black women, the most loyal and perhaps most important group among Democratic voters. In six of the seven swing states, Harris received over 90 percent of votes cast by Black women. In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of Black women voted for Harris.
Still, Harris’ defeat raised questions for the Democratic Party, which over the years has fueled accusations of being out of touch and elitist when it comes to Black voters, many of which have grown disillusioned with the party’s leadership as it focused on LGBTQ issues and progressive agendas. In the past years, many Black male voters have been vocal about the migrant crisis flooding Black neighborhoods under Biden’s administration and many, including Trump have tied Harris to the crisis.
On WVON 1690 The Perri Small Show, one caller, name Eddie, said “a significant number of Black people are tired of being on the back burner. We’re tired of hearing from Black politicians like [Barack} Obama and Harris.
“I salute the Black people who did not vote or voted for Trump because we are finally getting off the plantation. So, now we have an opportunity because the Democrats are saying man, what do they need? Now is the time to put together an agenda.”
Saint Sabina’s Father Michael Pfleger said Harris’s campaign “kept saying Democracy was at stake. That didn’t resonate with anybody who lives near 78th and Racine. Democracy has never worked for us. I think that was the wrong line to use. Democracy has consistently failed Black and Brown people.
“We like to keep believing that America has moved beyond race and justice. Wake up America. This is who we are. Racism is what America is. We’re not a Christian country. Stop lying on God.
While some are blaming Biden for Harris’ defeat, some political analysts attribute her lost to inflation and immigration- two big issues that hit poor voters in rural areas in swing states. And some say it didn’t help Harris when she continued to attack Trump in interviews to avoid answering questions on issues that matter most to voters.
Meanwhile, Blacks are bracing for a second Trump presidency, particularly, Project 2025, which aims to radically transform the U.S. government by replacing officials with Trump loyalists and conservative individuals. It’s an agenda that some say is the groundwork for Trump to serve as a dictator.
There is also concern that Trump will wipe away the many lawsuits and investigations that have dogged him since he left office in 2020. During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to fire special prosecutor Jack Smith, but on Wednesday, there was talk that the Biden administration began discussions with the U.S. Justice Department to withdraw federal January 6 lawsuits now that Trump has been reelected. But in three weeks, a judge in New York state court will hold a sentencing hearing after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records during his 2016 presidential campaign.