Vice President Kamala Harris tried to shake off frustration and offer words of empowerment to hundreds of supporters as she accepted the presidential nomination on Wednesday, as some of her supporters wiped away tears as she spoke.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, it’s not what we fought for, it’s not what we voted for, but hear me when I say … ‘The light of America’s promise will always shine bright,'” Harris said at his alma mater, Howard University.
Harris consoled Democrats over the loss to former President Donald Trump, admitting they are “feeling and going through a range of emotions right now.”
However, he stressed that in order to protect democracy, the democrats should accept the results of the election. By winning the race on Wednesday, Harris did something Trump never did.
“This morning I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him and his team that we will help him in his transition and work towards a peaceful transfer of power,” he said. getting cheers from the crowd.
Harris’ concession ended a stormy and testing campaign. He suddenly replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket just 15 weeks before Election Day. His opponent narrowly dodged an assassin’s bullet, followed by a second apparent assassination attempt nine weeks later. And he fought razor-thin months voting margins he left this nation aside.
His loss marks a realignment in the Democratic coalition, with Trump and Republicans expanding their reach to new segments of the electorate, including Latinos. This was despite Trump pushing the chaotic, divisive MAGA policies that have come to define the Republican Party since he emerged as a political force in the 2016 election.
Finally, Harris was opposed to serious economic concerns and voters who want changeand he failed to overcome the dark tactics of the Trump movement, which sought to paint him as unstable, traitorous and a threat to society through a barrage of lies, racist smears and misinformation. Trump himself has gravitated toward violent rhetoric, hinting at the idea of a shooter shooting at reporters covering his rallies or targeting a critic of a former Republican representative if sent to war.
Harris, 60, fended off those attacks with a message that combined joy and bravado — imploring the audience to “stand up,” trying to embrace his career as a tough prosecutor — and a stark warning: Trump, 78, will rule the country. authoritarian.
Voters responded with a decisive victory for Trump amid an economy still recovering from Covid and inflation and discontent with the direction of the country.
The former U.S. senator and attorney general from California, who blazed a trail as the first female vice president, ignited her party as she entered the presidential race. Democrats were dismayed as Biden went from ineffective to severely damaged after a single debate against Trump.
After Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, Democrats enjoyed the change, flooding their donation channels and breaking fundraising records. Harris has cultivated a forward-looking persona, seeking to distance himself from the unpopular president he still serves and policies that fail to compel Americans.
Finally, he may not have disconnected enough.
Harris has laid out his policy ambitions, promising to restore women’s access to abortion and a “care economy” that helps first-time homebuyers, parents of young children and older Americans. Addressing one of the Biden administration’s biggest weaknesses with voters, he vowed to get tough on illegal immigration, pledging more resources for border security while also promising to ease legal challenges for asylum seekers and improve pathways to citizenship.
Reproductive rights were central to her argument. Harris repeatedly cited Roe v. He tried to capitalize on the anger and energy behind Trump that led to Wade’s death. In rallies, interviews and ads, he has laid the most restrictive state laws in America at the former president’s feet, calling them “Trump’s abortion bans.” A lasting image of his only debate with Trump, who appeared to be the stronger and more disciplined candidate, came when he described a woman with a miscarriage who was denied care in an emergency room as “bleeding in the parking lot.”
What Harris failed to note was the historic nature of her candidacy, unlike Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Trump. But the vice president was well aware of what his election meant. On October 22 Interview with NBC NewsHarris said the country was “absolutely” ready to have a woman president, and that she was eager to move beyond the divisive era.
“I see it in every life in our country,” Harris said. “Part of what’s important in this election is really not just turning the page, but closing the page and the chapter on an era that shows Americans are divided.”
But many deep within the MAGA movement saw him as a threat, and Harris was unable to change beyond the deep divisions and polarization that have come to define US elections.
Just a week before the election, standing in front of about 45,000 supporters on the Ellipse in Washington, with the White House in the background, Harris pointedly recalled the site where Trump spoke before the violence on January 6, 2021. an attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
“America, for far too long we’ve been consumed by too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust, and then it can be easy to forget a simple truth: It shouldn’t be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Harris said on that crisp autumn evening, which will be seen as his closing argument. “It’s time to stop pointing fingers. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It’s time to turn the page on drama and conflict and fear and division. It’s time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I I am ready to offer this leadership as the next president of the United States of America.”
Accelerated campaign
Harris arrived at this point after a series of exceptional events.
The sticking point for Democrats was Biden’s performance June 27 discussion With Trump. It was Biden who urged Trump to discuss with him early on. Democrats have built up an expectation that the president will put to rest questions about his cognitive health once and for all.
It backfired spectacularly. Biden tried to speak clearly, looked off into the distance and was sometimes uneven — at one point announcing that Democrats had “finally defeated Medicare.”
While Democrats were in turmoil, Republicans rallied after Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Trump screamed, pumping his fist in the air as he was visibly bleeding and surrounded by the Secret Service. Battle! Battle! Fight!” immediately creating a symbolic image.
The GOP base was energized and Democrats worried that the election was completely lost.
The Biden campaign veered off course, sparking an eruption of party panic. One by one, congressional leaders have urged Biden to step aside until a critical mass emerges, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., working behind the scenes to urge him to quit. Campaign insiders I doubted that a course would advance existed as fundraising dried up, severely hampering the necessary expansion that came in the final stages of the presidential contest.
With that, on July 21, Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race, putting his endorsements behind Harris.
In less than a month, a renewed Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, where an excited party celebrated a black woman who pledged to defeat Trump. It was a remarkable turnaround from Harris’ first bid for the presidency in 2019, when he turned down a bid for the Democratic nomination before the Iowa caucuses.
Harris’s entry into the race changed the dynamics of the race—literally overnight—expanding the competitive map for Democrats beyond blue-wall states, building enthusiasm and attracting large numbers of volunteers and new voter registration. These efforts were supported by a record fundraising pace that ultimately topped $1.4 billion.
Suddenly, the sleepy events around Biden were gone, and the campaign with Harris booked large-scale venues for mass rallies in every state that immediately drew crowds of at least 10,000. Harris also brought the star power, with celebrities like Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and others lending their authoritative voices to support him in some way.
Growing up, Trump struggled to adjust to his new opponent excited publicly his coming in and making a series of missteps that caused him to suffer with certain voters. He He questioned Harris’ race and hurled sexist attacks at him, fought against him in his only debate, and indulged in conspiracy theories that culminated in him declaring that there were Haitian immigrants in Ohio. they ate the family animals.
Memorable, Harris offered a stern rebuttal To Trump’s insistence on the debate stage that he won the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump is fired by 81 million people,” Harris said. “Obviously he’s having a hard time processing it.”
But Trump managed to connect with working-class voters across racial and ethnic groups, as well as maintain strong numbers with men.