Harris to Speak at 4pm After Election Night Defeat

WASHINGTON—Vice President Kamala Harris, the defeated Democratic presidential nominee is expected to concede in a 4 p.m. ET speech to her supporters at Howard University on Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States. The results of the 2024 election were confirmed around 5:30 a.m. ET, with the Republican nominee securing the crucial swing state of Wisconsin, surpassing the 270 electoral votes required for victory.

Harris still hasn’t called Trump to concede.

She failed to show to deliver a scheduled speech to her supporters at the election night event at Howard University in Washington.

Emotions ran high on campus last night as students expressed excitement, but as news of Trump’s victories in key swing states began to pour in, the mood shifted. Many attendees left the watch party early.

Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris–Walz campaign, provided an update at the Howard University watch party shortly after midnight on election night. Richmond told supporters that Harris would not be making an address until later Wednesday.

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“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.

Harris, he added, “will be back here tomorrow to address not only the [Howard University] family, not only to address the supporters, but to address the nation.”

As a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), Howard holds a special significance for the vice president.

“I am proud to be the first HBCU vice president of the United States. I intend to be the first HBCU president of the United States,” Harris told podcaster Charlamagne in a recent interview.

Trump will return to the White House, being the first president to win nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump said at his campaign watch party in South Florida.

Trump called it a “magnificent victory” as it appeared he may secure enough votes to also win the popular vote, the first time a Republican has done so in 20 years.

Polls showed a neck-and-neck race leading into late October, with some surveys throughout the battlegrounds tipping in Trump’s favor.

The Harris campaign saw promise in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, spending much of their resources in those states throughout the final weeks. All three were called for Trump by early Wednesday morning.