Has Kamala Harris conceded the presidential election?

WASHINGTON — Early Wednesday morning, former president Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election by all of the major news outlets. While the early call is good news for Trump, and points to a decisive victory, it leaves his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, with the task of conceding the election. 

It is tradition for the losing candidate in a presidential election to call the new president-elect and offer congratulations, as part of the peaceful transfer of power that makes American democracy work. 

The candidate then typically speaks to supporters, offering thanks to those who brought them to the end and voted. 

The only exception in modern history is Trump himself, who infamously refused to concede the 2020 election and falsely claimed that it was rigged against him. Trump also skipped Joe Biden’s inauguration, the first outgoing president to break from this tradition since 1869. 

According to NBC News, citing two aides close to Harris, the vice president planned to call Trump sometime in the early afternoon Wednesday to offer her congratulations. 

She is scheduled to make her first public remarks since Trump’s victory at 4 p.m. Eastern at Howard University in Washington, D.C. 

According to the report, President Joe Biden has also not called Trump yet, although that call will likely happen after Harris speaks with the new president-elect. 

Although race calls from the Associated Press and other outlets aren’t official, they are accurate. The Associated Press has not called a state incorrectly in the presidential election in modern history, priding itself on 100% accuracy. 

Although states are still counting, the AP and other news organizations, who employ dedicated analysts to scrutinize election data for these calls, have determined that there is no path to victory left for Harris. 

Harris is expected to give a speech at 4 p.m. Eastern to officially concede the 2024 presidential election. 

Howard, the historic Black college, is a special place for Harris. It’s where she won her first campaign, for freshman class representative. It’s also where she launched her 2019 bid for the White House, and was one of her first stops on the day she was announced as Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020. 

She had hoped the school would serve as the site of her triumph Tuesday, as she watched election results trickle in. Early indications were that she would speak to supporters Tuesday night regardless of where the results stood, to thank them for their work during the campaign. 

But as election night wore on and it became increasingly clear that Trump was the likely winner, those plans changed. Cedrick Richmond, one of Harris’ campaign co-chairs, addressed the crowd just before 1 a.m. Wednesday morning instead. 

“We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to try to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken,” campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight. But you will hear from her tomorrow, because she will back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters, but to address the nation.”