A day after Trump's overwhelming victory, Harris officially concedes

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

But Harris stressed Wednesday afternoon: “While I concede this election, I do not admit the fight that fueled this campaign.”

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

In the end, Trump won a stunning electoral and popular vote victory over Harris as Republicans took back the Senate for the first time in four years. Meanwhile, control of the House of Representatives was still open the day after the election.

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Vice President Kamala Harris gestures as she delivers a concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC on Wednesday. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP Photo)

The vice president, who went to the podium one last time to hear Beyoncé's “Freedom,” the song that has become Harris' unofficial anthem, noted at the top of her roughly 12-minute speech: “My heart is full today.”

“The result of this election is not what we hoped for, not what we fought for, not what we voted for,” she said. “But listen 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.”

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

“Today I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory,” Harris said. “I also told him that we will assist him and his team in 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's trust must respect it.”

The vice president also emphasized: “We owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.”

President-elect Trump waves to his supporters at his election night victory party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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 main rival as his running mate and the two have spent the last four years leading the nation.

Trump's victory is being called the “greatest political comeback.”

Harris was the dutiful nominee for most of the 2024 election cycle as Biden sought a second four-year term in the White House.

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

Former President Trump and President Biden appear during the June 27 debate in Atlanta. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The 81-year-old Biden The halting and stumbling delivery cast doubt on his physical and mental ability to serve another four years in the White House. And it sparked calls within the Democratic Party for Biden to drop out of the race for the White House.

The president eventually caved to pressure and on July 21, in a blockbuster announcement that rocked the 2024 election, Biden ended his bid and endorsed his running mate.

The Democratic Party quickly coalesced around Harris, who immediately enjoyed a surge in poll numbers and a massive increase in fundraising.

Harris' honeymoon lasted through the Democratic National Convention in late August and into September, when most pundits declared her the winner of the only presidential debate between her and Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris greets President Biden at the end of the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

But as the calendar shifted from September to October, Trump appeared to be regaining his footing, and public opinion polls suggested the former president was gaining momentum.

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Then, in the final days of the campaign, the tone and mood seemed to shift again, this time to Harris, who ended her bid for the White House positively and did not mention Trump's name in the final 48 hours leading up to Election Day.

Meanwhile, Trump took a more negative and angry tone on the campaign trail as he made a long run through key battleground states.

But the former president ultimately won a resounding victory when Americans returned him to the White House.

Former President Trump, his wife Melania and their son Barron arrive at an election night victory party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Preliminary data from Fox News Voter Analysis of the 2024 election pointed to a political realignment as it showed Trump boosting scores with his MAGA base while narrowing traditional Democratic advantages among black, Hispanic and young voters.

Harris came close in her bid to become the first woman elected to the presidency, but failed to make enough gains in the ideological middle of the electorate to offset defections among groups that traditionally vote Democratic.

Fox News Voter Analysis is a survey of more than 110,000 voters across the country that highlights key dynamics of the 2024 election campaign.

Equally damaging: Harris was unable to escape the massive unpopularity of the Biden/Harris administration, where polls showed nearly three-quarters of voters said the country was on the wrong track.

Fox News' Voter Analysis highlighted that voters across the country preferred Trump's outsider appeal to Harris' promise to “turn over a new leaf” in the Trump era in an election in which they wanted change.

Fox News' Dana Blanton and Victoria Balara contributed to this report

Get the latest updates on the 2024 election, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital Election Center.