Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation Wednesday to officially concede the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump.

Harris delivered a speech to the country and her supporters at Howard University in Washington DC, her alma mater.

“While I recognize this election,” Harris said, “I do not recognize the fight that fueled this campaign.”

“I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, their ambitions and their aspirations,” she said. America, she added, “will never give up the fight for our democracy.”

Harris confirmed that she called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory, discussing the importance of a peaceful transfer of power with the president-elect. Biden also called Trump to congratulate him and invite him to the White House to discuss the transition. Biden plans to address the nation on Thursday about the election results, the White House said.

Howard had served as his headquarters on election night, where Harris had hoped to deliver a victory speech Tuesday night. But as midnight approached on the East Coast and election results pointed to victories for Donald Trump, the crowd’s cheers died down and the Harris campaign halted its broadcasts screened on CNN. Instead, the DJ played music from speakers to get the crowd going.

“We still have votes to count. There are still states that have not yet been called. We will continue through the night to try to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice is cast,” he said. declared campaign co-chair Cédric Richmond. “So you won’t hear from the Vice President tonight. But you will hear from her tomorrow, because she will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only her supporters, but also the nation .”

Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of the Harris-Walz campaign, addressed supporters at Howard University saying Vice President Kamala Harris would not speak until Wednesday.

The surest way for Harris to get 270 electoral votes was through Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that Trump won in 2016 and President Joe Biden narrowly captured in 2020. But in state after state, including North Carolina and Georgia, Trump surpassed what he had done in 2020 elections, while Harris failed to do as well as Biden in winning. the presidency four years ago.

Trump’s victory over Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party, marks the second time he has defeated a rival in a general election.

Harris surged to the top of the rankings after Biden left the race with less than 100 days until Election Day after a disastrous debate with the Republican nominee raised questions about his age and abilities. Despite an initial burst of energy and enthusiasm around her campaign, she struggled under a tight deadline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break with an unpopular administration.

Harris has particularly focused on reproductive rights, an issue that attracted women to her candidacy after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and states began implementing restrictions on abortion. And even though abortion rights measures won in seven states, it wasn’t enough to give Harris victory.

Some states have added the right to abortion in their Constitutions, while two have rejected these measures.

Meanwhile, Trump sought to woo male voters with a hypermasculine approach. At the polls, Trump beat Harris among men while about half of women supported Harris.

Trump ultimately won over voters with big promises of improving the economy, blocking the flow of immigrants at the southern border and his siren call to “make America great again.”

Overall, about half of Trump voters said inflation was the top issue they considered in their election decisions, according to NBC News exit poll data.

Nearly half – 45% – of all voters said their financial situation was worse than four years ago. This is a higher level of dissatisfaction than has been recorded in exit polls in any recent election dating back to 2008, when the election took place amid the financial crisis that propelled Barack Obama to victory. And although the economy is growing, with low unemployment and a booming stock market, 2 in 3 voters rated the U.S. economy poorly, a higher level than in 2020, when the country had to struggling to get back up and running during the Covid pandemic.

Harris and Trump ran very different campaigns, with Harris promising to work with people who disagreed with her, while Trump warned of the “enemy within.” In addition to abortion rights, she has focused on preserving democratic norms and tackling housing costs and other critical economic issues.

Harris refused to get drawn into arguments with Trump, for example when he asked her if she downplayed her identity as a black woman. Harris’ mother came to the United States from India while her father is from Jamaica.

Trump called Harris a socialist, even though she has a more centrist record, and insulted her intelligence and qualifications. Harris served as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. Biden chose her as his running mate after ending his own presidential campaign in 2020.

But within the Biden administration, Harris grappled with other issues — the war in Gaza was chief among them — on which she alienated many traditional Democratic voters.

In contrast, Trump presented a bleak vision of America, which fact-checkers found full of exaggerations and inaccuracies. He called migrants “vermin” and accused them of committing violent crimes, made wild accusations that schools were helping transgender schools transition without parental consent, and repeated his false claims that that it was he, not Biden, who won the 2020 presidential election. Late in the campaign, at his Madison Square Garden rally, a comedian insulted Puerto Ricans with the phrase “floating island of garbage “.

Trump was convicted of illegally influencing the 2016 election by making discreet payments to a porn actress. He faces federal charges for his efforts to remain in the White House after the 2020 election and charges against the state of Georgia.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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