Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation on Wednesday, officially ceding the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump.

Harris addressed the country and her supporters at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC.

“While I accept this election, I do not accept the fight that fueled this campaign,” Harris said.

“I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, passions and desires,” he said. America, he added, “will never give up the fight for our democracy.”

Harris confirmed that she called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory and discussed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power with the president-elect. Biden also called Trump to congratulate him and invite him to the White House to discuss the transition. The White House said Biden plans to address the nation about the election results on Thursday.

Howard had served as the election night headquarters where Harris hoped to deliver a victory speech Tuesday night. But as midnight approached on the East Coast and election results showed Donald Trump’s victories, the crowd’s cheers died down and Harris’ campaign shut down CNN’s projected broadcasts. Instead, the DJ played music from the speakers to get the crowd excited.

“We still have votes to count. We still have states that haven’t been called yet. We will continue to work through the night to make sure every vote is counted and every voice speaks,” campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond said. “So you’re not going to hear from the vice president tonight. But you’re going to hear from him tomorrow, because he’s coming here tomorrow to address not just the HU family, not just his supporters, but the nation.”

Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of the Harris-Walz campaign, spoke to supporters at Howard University and said Vice President Kamala Harris will not speak until Wednesday.

Harris’ surest path to 270 delegate votes was through Michigan. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which Trump won in 2016 and President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020. But in many states, including North Carolina and Georgia, Trump did better than he did in the 2020 election, while Harris did not do as well as Biden won. He became president 4 years ago.

Trump’s victory over Harris, the first black woman in a major party, marks the second time he has defeated a female opponent in the general election.

Harris rose to the top of the list after a disastrous spat with the Republican candidate raised questions about her age and ability after Biden withdrew from the race less than 100 days before election day. Despite an initial wave of energy and excitement about his campaign, he struggled on a tight timeline to convince disillusioned voters that he represented a break from an unpopular administration.

Harris focused specifically on reproductive rights; The US Supreme Court’s Roe v. It’s an issue that drew women to run for office after Wade overturned his decision and states began imposing restrictions on abortion. Although abortion rights measures were won in seven states, Harris’ win was not enough.

While some states have included the right to abortion in their constitutions, two have rejected this provision.

Trump, meanwhile, tried to woo male voters with an overly masculine approach. While Trump outperformed Harris among men in the election, nearly half of women supported Harris.

Trump ultimately won voters’ support with his siren call to improve the economy, stem the flow of immigrants at the Southern border and “make America great again.”

Nearly half of Trump voters overall said inflation was the biggest issue influencing their election decision, according to evidence from the NBC News Exit Poll.

Nearly half (45%) of voters said they were worse off financially than they were four years ago. That was a higher level of dissatisfaction than recorded in exit polls of any recent election dating back to 2008, when the election took place amid the financial crisis that propelled Barack Obama to victory. Even though the economy is growing with low unemployment and a rising stock market, 2 in 3 voters rate the U.S. economy poorly; This is a higher level than in 2020, when the country was trying to recover during the Covid pandemic.

Harris and Trump ran very different campaigns; Harris vowed to work with people who disagree with her, while Trump warned of the “enemy within.” He emphasized protecting abortion rights as well as democratic norms and addressing housing costs and other basic economic issues.

Harris refused to engage in an argument with Trump, for example, when she questioned whether Trump was belittling her identity as a black woman. Harris’ mother came to the United States from India and his father from Jamaica.

Trump called Harris a socialist despite her more centrist record and insulted her intelligence and qualifications. Before becoming a U.S. senator, Harris was the San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. Biden chose her as his running mate after ending his own presidential campaign in 2020.

But as part of the Biden administration, Harris has also grappled with other issues (most notably the war in Gaza) that have alienated many traditional Democratic voters.

In response, Trump offered a dark vision of America that controllers found to be full of exaggerations and inaccuracies. He called immigrants “vermin” and accused them of committing violent crimes, made wild accusations about schools helping transgender students transition without parental consent, and repeated his baseless claims that he, not Biden, won the 2020 presidential election. Late in the campaign, at a Madison Square Garden rally, a comedian insulted Puerto Ricans with the slogan “a floating island of garbage.”

Trump was convicted of illegally influencing the 2016 election by making secret payments to a porn actress. He faces federal charges stemming from his efforts to stay in the White House after the 2020 election and state charges in Georgia.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Here is a look at the candidates breaking new ground after the 2024 elections.