Facing a crowd of supporters, a number of them wiping away tears, Kamala Harris delivered a concession speech in which she urged them to not despair and not give up at a critical period in American history.
“To everyone who is watching: Do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves,” Harris said to the crowd at Howard University.
Many in the crowd were at the same place on Tuesday night, hopeful that it would be a victory celebration. Instead, the mood turned grim when it was apparent that the election was shifting Donald Trump‘s way.
Harris made a point of noting that, in her phone call with Trump today, she told him that “we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power,” a contrast to the president-elect’s refusal to do so four years ago.
“A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” Harris said. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks to public trust must honor it.”
“At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party but to the Constitution of the United States,” she said.
Harris encouraged her supporters to “never give up.”
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she said.
Harris was joined by her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and her running mate, Tim Walz, who was there with his wife Gwen.
“There’s an adage an historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages,” Harris said. “The adage is, ‘Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.’ I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant billion of stars, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.”