WASHINGTON – In her presidential concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed young people about the future. Many were eager to listen.
For Alice Still, a 20-year-old political science student at American University, attending felt like paying her respects to a campaign she had passionately backed, offering a kind of political wake as she said her goodbyes.
“The least I can do is show up for a candidate who fought so hard and be here to support her one last time,” Still said.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Still described how she stayed up late watching election results unfold, only to be shocked and disheartened as her home state swung in favor of former President Donald Trump.
“I was optimistic that my home state, which I love and want to continue loving so badly, would do the right thing in this election,” Still said.
Adding insult to injury, Still worried that her own efforts in her hometown of Gettysburg had been in vain. There, she canvassed door-to-door and participated in phone banking efforts for the Harris-Walz camapaign.
Even though her Adams County community has traditionally voted Republican, she got the sense through her own campaign contributions that Harris was gaining ground and outpacing Trump’s efforts in the highly-contested swing state.
“I could burst into tears just thinking about it,” Still said.
She pointed to the possibility of a national abortion ban, a complete withdrawal from Ukraine and unyielding support for Israel as her biggest concerns under a second Trump presidency.
Ahead of Harris’s concession speech, Still said that she expected a hopeful message, admitting that she felt like she was attending to help ease her own fears about the election results.
“I’m feeling very hopeless right now,” Still said. “If there’s one thing that Kamala Harris can do, it’s speak to young people and give them drive and give them hope.”
Before getting into the depths of her concessionary message, Harris began her time on Howard’s stage with a moment of gratitude, thanking her family, President Joe Biden, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and all those who supported her campaign. Then, she transitioned into a topic she views as essential to her responsibilities not only as a losing presidential candidate, but also as a public servant and American citizen.
Harris told attendees that she had already called Trump earlier in the day to congratulate him on his win and wish him luck as he prepares to return to the Oval Office. Though many in the crowd booed over her concession call, they cheered when she promised them a “peaceful transition of power.”
As she drifted away from the loss itself, the Vice President shifted gears and began to address the heightened emotions of her supporters and potential next steps. She specifically doubled down on continuing what she calls a fight for “bodily autonomy,” something that she has made a key component of the shortest presidential campaign in history.
Then, she turned her attention directly to the young people in the audience, telling them that while it is okay to be disappointed, she believes that it’s going to be okay.
“On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win,” Harris said. “But here’s the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”
Unlike Hillary Clinton’s 2016 concession, Harris steered clear of discussing the historical factors of a candidacy that would have made her the first female and first woman of color to be president. Eight years ago, the former First Lady and Secretary of State directed her attention to “all the little girls watching this.” Instead of repeating that same message, Harris chose not to tie her message to the nation’s youth to gender and only briefly alluded to the groundbreaking aspects of her campaign.
“Don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before,” Harris said.
Praise Alexis, a 19-year-old Howard student, walks the same halls that Harris once did when she was in college.
Alexis believes that Harris’s decision to spend election night and its aftermath at her alma mater reflected not only gratitude for her education, but also for the role that current students and young people played her campaign.
“She could be anywhere today, but she chose to come back here, to the place where she graduated. So, I think that’s a huge thing,” Alexis said.
Many Howard students attended both the election watch party Tuesday and Harris’s speech Wednesday, sporting school merchandise and chanting the university’s rallying cry, “HU! You Know!” as she left the stage. Members of Harris’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, wore the organization’s pink and green sweatshirts in a show of solidarity with their sorority sister.
But Howard students weren’t the only college kids who jumped at the opportunity to hear Harris speak.
Kim Cimino, a 24-year-old pre-law student at Liberty University, was the first in line for the Wednesday campaign.
Seated on a sidewalk outside a Subway storefront, Cimino reflected on all the ways he found solace in the Harris-Walz campaign as a student on one of the country’s most conservative college campuses.
Though doors opened for the event at 1 p.m. and Harris took the stage three hours later, Cimino was already outside the gates hours before a security team set up metal barricades.
“I wanted to be the first person and get a good spot so I could see her in person,” Cimino said. “I want to be around my people.”
