Kamala Harris to give concession speech tonight, congratulates Trump: sources
Vice President Kamala Harris called President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him on his election victory, a senior Harris aide said.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the call.
The aide said Harris discussed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power with Trump ahead of her planned concession speech Wednesday afternoon.
This is a breaking news update. Check back with FOX 5 NY as this story develops.
Vice President Kamala Harris will officially concede the 2024 election to Donald Trump, after he was projected to become the 47th U.S. president.
Trump was declared the winner early Wednesday by the Associated Press and others, having surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
Harris earned at least 224 electoral votes, with swing state results in Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona still outstanding.
What time is Kamala Harris speech today?
According to the White House, Harris will deliver remarks to address supporters at 4 p.m. ET at Howard University in Washington D.C., a historically Black university and her alma mater.
FOX 5 NY will have live coverage of the speech. You can watch in the media player below as well as our app, FOX Local, available on your phone and connected V.. Don't have the FOX Local app? Here's how you can download it.
The Harris campaign hosted an election night party on Tuesday on The Yard at Howard University, where the mood turned from "festive to fretting" as the race calls began coming in, according to the Associated Press.
Harris had been expected to address the election night party, but her campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said supporters wouldn’t hear from her until Wednesday.
"We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue, overnight, to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken," Richmond said Tuesday night, prior to the AP’s race call for Trump.
Harris launched her White House bid just four months ago after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Her modified campaign centered a lot of her message on Trump and a warning of the threat she said he posed to U.S. democracy and abortion protections. She targeted the traditional Democratic base — African Americans, Latinos and young people — but also sought to win over disaffected Republicans.
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However, Trump managed to win both nationwide and in key swing states with voters who were alarmed about the economy and prioritized more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws.
Anxiety about inflation was particularly high nationally, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.
Voters broadly believed that Trump would be better equipped than Harris, Biden’s current vice president, to handle the economy and jobs. The key swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan largely mirrored the mood of the nation, the survey found.
The AP’s VoteCast survey found that Trump picked up a small but significant share of younger voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters – many of whom were feeling down about the economy. Majorities of younger Black voters and Latino voters said the economy is not working well, according to the survey.
Donald Trump victory speech
Meanwhile, Trump appeared before a cheering crowd at his Mar-a-Lago election watch party in Florida, following FOX News' early projection of his win.
Trump, 78, will begin his second term early next year after losing his first reelection bid to Biden in 2020. It was an extraordinary comeback for Trump, who refused to accept defeat four years ago and helped spark the U.S. Capitol riot, was convicted of felony charges, and survived two assassination attempts.
In a victory speech early Wednesday, Trump told the crowd: "Every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future."
"This will truly be the golden age of America," Trump said. "This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again."