Kamala Harris' election concession speech: Live updates

A disaffected electorate wanted former President Donald Trump to return to the White House, a blatant rejection of Vice President Kamala Harris and her nearly four years with President Joe Biden .

The Republican's victory came from a public so put off by America's trajectory that they welcomed his brash and disruptive approach. About 3 in 10 voters said they wanted total upheaval in how the country is run, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. Even if they weren't looking for something that dramatic, more than half of voters overall said they wanted to see substantial change.

Both nationwide and in key battleground states, the Republicans won over voters who were alarmed about the economy and prioritized more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. Those issues largely overshadowed many voters' focus on the future of democracy and abortion protections — key priorities for Harris' voters, but not enough to turn the election in her favor.

Melania Trump marked her husband's win in the 2025 election by saying a "majority of Americans have entrusted us with this important responsibility."

The former — and future — first lady was an infrequent figure on the campaign trail with the Republican candidate. Melania Trump attended but did not speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. She did appear at Donald Trump's election party early on Wednesday morning.

"We will safeguard the heart of our republic – freedom," Melania Trump wrote. "I anticipate the citizens of our nation rejoining in commitment to each other and rising above ideology for the sake of individual liberty, economic prosperity, and security."

For all the concerns about a tumultuous process that could leave Americans waiting for days to learn who its next president would be, news outlets instead experienced an election night that hewed close to tradition.

Fox News Channel declared Trump had reclaimed the presidency at 1:47 a.m. on Wednesday. Broadcast networks and The Associated Press had Trump on the precipice of returning to the presidency when he took the stage in Florida at 2:25 a.m. to declare victory.

Many journalists warned viewers that determining the winner could be a protracted process that could take several days like it had in 2020 .

Yet from the first hints provided by exit poll results shortly after 5 p.m. EST, the election night story moved methodically in Trump's direction.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement late Wednesday, saying that "we all pray for America's success under the next administration," but did not make mention of Trump by name.

Pelosi was seen as the architect of the Democratic party's strategic shift from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris as top of their ticket over the summer. The California Democrat has been Trump's biggest critic, saying previously that her goal is to ensure Trump never enters the White House again.

"The peaceful transfer of power is the cornerstone of our democracy," Pelosi said. "After every election, we all have a responsibility to come together and find common ground."

Former Vice President Mike Pence congratulated Trump for winning a second term in office, writing yet another awkward chapter in the relationship between the president-elect and his former running mate.

"The American people have spoken and Karen and I send our sincere congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump and his family on his election as 47th President of the United States," Pence wrote on behalf of him and his wife. The former vice president also congratulated Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who ran in place of Pence as Trump's running mate.

"We will continue to pray for all those in authority and urge every American to join us in praying for our incoming President, Vice President and elected officials at every level," Pence concluded.

Pence's relationship with Trump fractured after the former vice president declined to follow the Republican president's wishes and went ahead with certifying the 2020 election. Trump did not hold back in his contempt for Pence, questioning his judgment and calling him "delusional" on the campaign trail. Pence, in turn, declined to endorse his one-time running mate .

American presidential elections are a moment when the nation holds up a mirror to look at itself. They are a reflection of values and dreams, of grievances and scores to be settled.

The results say much about a country's character, future and core beliefs. On Tuesday, America looked into that mirror and more voters saw former president Donald Trump, delivering him a far-reaching victory in the most contested states.

He won for many reasons. One of them was that a formidable number of Americans, from different angles, said the state of democracy was a prime concern.

Even as Trump prevailed, most voters said they were very or somewhat concerned that electing Trump would bring the U.S. closer to being an authoritarian country, where a single leader has unchecked power, according to the AP VoteCast survey. Still, 1 in 10 of those voters backed him anyway. Nearly 4 in 10 Trump voters said they wanted complete upheaval in how the country is run.

They're called swing states for a reason.

On Tuesday, Trump led the Republican ticket to a sweeping national victory. He was on track to improve upon his 2020 vote performance in 48 states. This included bringing back into the fold the five states that had abandoned him for Democratic Joe Biden four years ago.

Six of the seven 2024 presidential battlegrounds that helped decide Tuesday's election had all moved sharply away from Trump in 2020. They included Georgia and Arizona, which hadn't supported a Democrat for president in more than 20 years, as well as North Carolina, which shifted sharply to the left but barely remained in Trump's column in 2020.

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin all supported Trump in 2016 after supporting Democratic presidential candidates for at least six consecutive elections but swung back toward Democrats in 2020.

This year, Trump significantly outperformed his 2020 showing in all battlegrounds and had either won or was leading in the vote in the count as of Wednesday afternoon.

Nevada maintained a 2.4 percentage-point advantage for the Democratic candidate in both 2016 and 2020. But Trump led by almost 5 percentage points on Wednesday, although the AP had not yet called the race.

The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts.

When they list measures that are making the most difference, it lines up with policies Trump has said he'll target.

These rollbacks will come as more lives are being lost in heat waves, record amounts of climate pollution are accumulating in the atmosphere, the United States has been hit with what may be two of its most expensive hurricanes, and nations, which will meet in Baku, Azerbaijan next week for climate negotiations, have failed to take strong action to change these realities.

In a statement issued Wednesday, former President Barack Obama, along with former first lady Michelle Obama, said the election's result "is obviously not the outcome we had hoped for" but noted that "living in a democracy is about recognizing that our point of view won't always win out, and being willing to accept the peaceful transfer of power."

Congratulating Trump and Vance, the Obamas expressed pride for Harris and Walz, for both of whom they campaigned, calling them "two extraordinary public servants who ran a remarkable campaign."

The Obamas cast forward with hope for a divided America, saying that the nation's problems are solvable "only if we listen to each other, and only if we abide by the core constitutional principles and democratic norms that made this country great."

The White House is encouraging Trump to enter into the required agreements necessary to begin an orderly presidential transition.

Trump's transition team still has not signed the agreements with the White House and the General Services Administration that allow them access to federal facilities, documents and personnel. The delay is holding up the federal government's ability to begin processing security clearances for potential Trump administration national security appointees, potentially limiting the number of his staff who could work on sensitive information by Inauguration Day.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients reached out to co-chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon to reiterate the role the agreements play in beginning a presidential transition, according to a White House official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive transition planning.

Shortly after Harris' concession speech, a series of Democratic lawmakers issued their first statements in response to the election results and promised to ensure a "peaceful" transition for the incoming Republican administration.

"As deeply, deeply disappointed as I am by the results of the election, make no mistake: my Democratic colleagues and I — unlike many Republicans after the 2020 election — will uphold the will of the American people, fulfill our constitutional duty and do our part to ensure a peaceful transfer of power," Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said in a statement.

Democrats spent billions of dollars warning American voters that Donald Trump posed an imminent threat to democracy, that his economic policies would benefit only his wealthy friends, that he was literally a fascist .

In the end, voters didn't care — or if they did, it didn't matter.

And now, after Kamala Harris' decisive loss , Democrats enter a second Trump presidency with no clear leader, no clear plan and no agreement on what caused them to be so wrong about the 2024 election.

"I think there needs to be a cleaning of the house, there needs to be a new generation of leaders that emerge," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., among the few Democrats with presidential ambitions to address the party's future on Wednesday. "There needs to be new thinking, new ideas and a new direction. And, you know, the establishment produced a disaster."

More than 70 national, state and local LGBTQ+ rights and advocacy organizations released a "solidarity statement" Wednesday reacting to the results of this week's elections.

"Election outcomes at national, state, and local levels will impact our health, our safety, and our rights as LGBTQIA2S+ people and families," the statement read. "Despite anti-LGBTQIA2S+ efforts to divide our communities, and particularly severe attacks against transgender people and LGBTQIA2S+ youth, we have succeeded in moving a few steps closer toward equity and justice for our community."

The letter highlighted the reelection of lesbian U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and the election of the first transgender member of Congress, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride , of Delaware.

The statement did not mention Trump by name. But he and other Republican candidates frequently employed anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in campaign ads, remarks and platforms, particularly against transgender and nonbinary people.

The statement was signed by groups including the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, GLAAD, many PFLAG and Equality chapters, the Transgender Law Center, Advocates for Trans Equality, and the Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention organization.

Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, said separately in an email that volume on its crisis line from LGBTQ+ youths seeking help increased about 125% on Election Day through midday Wednesday.

The vice president used what she called "a law of history," recalling an adage that "only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

"I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case," she said. "America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, billion stars. The light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service."

Harris may have been ending her campaign against Trump, but her concession outlined the contours of future fights against the president-elect.

"We will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square," Harris said, a nod to the work Democrats are poised to do in the next four years.

Harris specifically called out the young people she sought to organize, acknowledging the loss may hurt but that the work is not over.

"Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. The important thing is don't ever give up," she said. "Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place."

Harris attempted to focus on the future work Democrats need to do in her concession speech.

"While I concede this election," she said, "I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign."

"I will never give up a fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams ambitions and aspirations," she said. America, she added, "will never give up the fight for our democracy."

Harris urged her supporters to accept her loss in the 2024 presidential election and touted how she would help Trump with his transition.

"Folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now, I get it. But we must accept the results of this election," she said.

"Earlier today I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory," Harris said to a smattering of boos from the audience. "I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power."

Harris told supporters gathered at Howard University that she had lost her race against Trump, conceding to the Republican president who is now empowered by a sweeping mandate.

"The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for," Harris said. "But hear me 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."

Harris had planned to address an audience like this at Howard on election night and had hoped she would have a more upbeat message to deliver. Instead, when Harris took the stage at her alma mater, she looked out at a sea of America flags and notably forlorn faces. She was flanked by 30 American flags.

Harris' campaign chair acknowledged the Democrat's "unfathomably painful" loss in a memo to staff, but told the operatives who worked for the vice president that "the work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now."

Jen O'Malley Dillon's memo to staff acknowledged the pain of the moment for Democrats but took a hopeful tone about the work these staffers have done.

"Losing is unfathomably painful. It is hard. This will take a long time to process," she wrote. "But the work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now."

O'Malley Dillon said Harris "isn't finished in this fight" and said the staffers who worked for the vice president are "going to be leaders in this collective mission."

"View this as the beginning, not the end" she concluded. "It will be hard work. But as the boss says: hard work is good work."

Beyoncé's "Freedom" became a mainstay of Harris' presidential campaign, and some of the artist's other music is providing the soundtrack of the event expected to include her concession speech.

"Run the World (Girls)" played through speakers at Howard University as supporters, members of Congress and other Democratic notables awaited the Democratic nominee.

Harris' presidential campaign took on Beyoncé's 2016 track "Freedom" as its anthem, with Harris walking out to it at dozens of events, including her acceptance speech at this summer's Democratic National Convention.

The singer appeared with Harris last month during a campaign rally in her hometown of Houston, bringing a high level of star power to what had become a key theme of the Democratic nominee's bid: freedom.

Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation's most restrictive abortion bans in one of seven victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they'll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of "pregnancy outcomes" prevailed in New York.

The results came in the same election where Trump won the presidency. Among his inconsistent positions on abortion has been an insistence that it's an issue best left to the states. Still, the president can have a major impact on abortion policy through executive action.

Belarus' authoritarian leader President Alexander Lukashenko has congratulated Donald Trump on winning the U.S. presidential election, despite tensions between the countries.

"You did it first and foremost in the name of America and its citizens. I wish you good health, well-aimed political decisions that will make America great again," Lukashenko said in a statement.

Since protests against alleged fraud in the 2020 elections that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office, he has led a harsh and extensive crackdown on opposition. The Trump administration adopted two packages of sanctions against Belarus for the falsification of its own 2020 elections and violence against protesters.

Special counsel Jack Smith is evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases against Trump before he takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate . But Trump's election defeat of Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with decades-old department legal opinions meant to shield presidents from criminal charges while in office.

David Plouffe, the longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama turned top Harris aide, wrote Wednesday that the Democratic operation "left it all on the field for their county" but eventually it was not enough against Trump.

"We dug out of a deep hole but not enough," Plouffe wrote . "A devastating loss. Thanks for being in the arena, all of you."

Plouffe's comments come at a time when some Democrats are starting to blame President Biden for not stepping away earlier, constraining Harris to a truncated campaign.

President Joe Biden has called President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his election victory and to invite him to the White House to discuss the transition.

The White House said staff would coordinate a date "in the near future." Biden plans to address the nation on the election results, which will have sharp implications for his legacy, on Thursday. Biden also spoke with Vice President Harris to congratulate her on her campaign.

Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers had campaigned for Kamala Harris and called Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally "atrocious" during an Oct. 28 pregame availability. Rivers struck a conciliatory tone Wednesday while discussing the election results.

"I was disappointed in the results, you know, I really was," Rivers said during a postpractice media session. "This is the most involved I've ever been in an election. A lot of it was personal because I've known Kamala for over 15 years. I thought she would have been a terrific president. The problem is 65-million-plus disagreed with me, and now Donald Trump's our president, and we're going to have to support him. We want him to do the best job for the country, at the end of the day."

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt has spoken with President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his election, according to a statement from the Egyptian leader's office.

El-Sissi has affirmed: "Egypt looks forward to completing the joint work with President Trump during his new term ... in a way that benefits the Egyptian and American peoples and achieves stability, peace and development in the Middle East," the statement said.

El-Sissi cultivated close ties with Trump during his previous term. He was the first foreign leader to congratulate Trump when he won 2016 elections.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated President-elect Donald Trump and said he stands ready "to work constructively with the incoming administration to address the dramatic challenges our world is facing."

"I reaffirm my belief that the cooperation between the United States and the United Nations is an essential pillar of international relations," the U.N. chief said in a statement.

Guterres also commended the American people "for their active participation in the democratic process."

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, responding to questions from reporters on Wednesday, said during Trump's previous administration four years ago, "the secretary-general had very good relations with the president."

"The fact that they had different opinions about a number of issues was clear to all," Dujarric said. "It did not stop the secretary-general from engaging with the United States government just as all previous secretary-generals have."

For months, Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis railed against ballot measures that would have amended the state's constitution to legalize marijuana and protect the right to an abortion up to viability — usually considered sometime after 21 weeks. He said they were poorly worded, confusing and would be impossible to repeal if written into the state's constitution.

But a majority of voters cast ballots in support of them. So why didn't they pass?

Two decades ago, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush successfully lobbied to make it harder for voters to amend the constitution by requiring them to earn 60% support on ballot measures. Both measures garnered over 50% of the vote, but fell shy of the required threshold.

The results indicate the issues are not cleanly partisan.

Trump won 56 percent of the vote , suggesting that his backers included voters who disagree with the GOP on abortion rights and those who support marijuana legalization.

Trump, perhaps the state's most famous resident, also had a chance to weigh in. He said he voted against the measure expanding abortion rights. He did not say how he voted on the marijuana measure but has in the past said he supports legalization.

With Donald Trump's victory in Michigan, he completes a sweep of the Great Lakes "Blue Wall" states that Kamala Harris had considered her smoothest path to victory.

Trump managed the same sweep of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton. President Joe Biden outpaced Trump in those states in 2020.

Unlike Clinton's campaign in 2016, Harris campaigned heavily across the region through September and October. The vice president spent all day Sunday in Michigan, but she was unable to match Biden's level of support, most notably in Wayne County, where Detroit offers a trove of Democratic votes.

Trump was active in the region, as well, and he improved on his 2020 margins across the three key states.

French President Emmanuel Macron had a "very good discussion" with Donald Trump about the world's major crises during a 25-minute phone call, Macron's office said.

Macron expressed his views on the "importance" for the U.S. to reckon with the European Union and both leaders had talks on Ukraine and the Middle East, Macron's office said.

The French President said he was making himself available to continue to work with Trump on these issues and make efforts towards peace and stability, according to his office.