WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris, in her first public comments since losing the 2024 White House race to former President Trump, urged supporters to "accept the results." 

But Harris on Wednesday afternoon emphasized that "while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign."

The vice president spoke at Howard University, her alma mater, where her campaign held a large election night watch party. Harris never addressed the crowd on Tuesday night, as initial optimism about the election turned dour as the clock struck past midnight.

Trump ended up winning a sweeping electoral and popular vote victory over Harris, as Republicans won back the Senate for the first time in four years. Meanwhile, control of the House was still up for grabs on the day after the election.

The vice president, who walked to the podium one last time to Beyonce's "Freedom," the song that had become Harris' unofficial anthem, noted near the top of her roughly 12-minute address that "my heart is full today."

"The outcome of this election is not what we hoped, not what we fought, not what we voted for," she said. "But hear when I say… the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting."

The vice president also seemed to take aim at Trump, who for four years has blamed his 2020 White House loss to President Biden on unproven claims of a "rigged election" and who repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to overturn the results. 

"Earlier today I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory," Harris said. "I also told him we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power."

She emphasized that "a fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results… anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it."

The vice president also stressed that "we owe loyalty not to a president or a party but to the Constitution of the United States."

Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator, ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 presidential nomination. But Biden named his primary rival as his running mate and the two have spent the past four years steering the nation.
 

Harris, for most of the 2024 election cycle, was the dutiful running mate as Biden bid for a second four-year term in the White House.

But everything changed in late June, due to Biden's disastrous debate performance against Trump.