Kamala Harris loses: In shock, Democrats search for answers

Washington: Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, acknowledged that her Republican rival, Donald Trump, had won the 2024 elections. But she warned that while she was conceding the election, she wasn’t conceding the fight for freedom “that fuelled her campaign”, in a message that appeared aimed to boost the morale of her base but also left an intriguing hint about her own future.

Harris delivered her concession speech at Howard University, her alma mater and a historically Black institution in Washington DC, on Wednesday afternoon eastern time (Thursday morning IST). For his part, President Joe Biden spoke to Trump and invited him to the White House, a meeting that’s expected to be held soon, and promised a peaceful transition, something that Trump hadn’t done back in 2020.

Dems in shock

Democrats remained in shock at the scale of Trump’s win and Republican takeover of Senate on Wednesday and Thursday. The only hope Democrats now have to impose any check on the President-elect is a majority in the House of Representatives, but the counting of votes in competitive seats of the House was ongoing at the time of going to press.

With her husband Doug Emhoff, her running mate Tim Walz, and hundreds of supporters and volunteers in attendance, many of whom could be seen tearing up and even sobbing, Harris said, “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for…Now, I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. I get it, but we must accept the results of this election.”

Harris said she had spoken to Trump, congratulated him, promised to help with the transition, and told him they were committed to a peaceful transition of power. “When we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honour it,” she said, in a clear dig at Trump for his actions in 2020.

Harris said that her fundamental loyalty was to the constitution, to her conscience and God. “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign — the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”

Peaceful transition

Biden, speaking in the Rose Garden in White House on Thursday morning, said that he had spoken to Trump and promised a peaceful transition. He hailed Harris’s character, and said that she should be proud of the campaign she ran. Biden said they accept the choice the country has made. “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbour when you agree…Bring the temperature down.”

He also used the moment to say that this should reaffirm the faith in the American electoral process. He said, “On January 20, we will have a peaceful transfer of power here in America.”

Biden spoke of the achievements of his presidency, talked about using the remaining days well, and told his base that setbacks are unavoidable but giving up was unforgivable.

While Biden and Harris’s efforts to keep the base motivated at a time of a devastating defeat for Democrats was apparent, it didn’t obscure the battles and blame game that has already commenced within Democratic ranks. Campaign officials offered background quotes to American media outlets pinning the blame on Biden for not leaving the race early enough; others pointed to Democrats not using newer forms of mass media communication, particularly popular podcasts, to push out their message; others said Harris hadn’t defined herself effectively. Some blamed her for moving to Right, others said she was too Left.

But at the core of the battle was the future ideological direction of the party.

From the Left, Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats and ran for the nomination in 2016 and 2020, said that Democrats had abandoned the working class, and so the working class had abandoned the Democrats. “First it was the White working class and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they are right.” Sanders blamed big money donors and consultants who control the Democratic Party for not recognising this pain and the indispensability of a progressive economic agenda.

But other Democrats spoke of the need to stop listening to the Left.

Ritchie Torres, a Democratic representative from a poorer part of Bronx in New York, posted on X said that Trump had no “greater friend than the far left”, blaming it for alienating “historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx’. “There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world. The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling,” Torres said.

Obama offers context

It was left to the former president and strong Harris supporter, Barack Obama, to offer more context. In a statement, he spoke of how America had been through a lot in recent years, including the pandemic and price hikes resulting from it. “These conditions have created headwinds for democratic incumbents across the world…and America is not immune.” Obama also spoke of the need to extend grace to those one disagreed with, and said that’s how progress happened.

Even as Democrats exit office, and prepare for political turbulence of the kind they may not have seen so far, it is clear that the party’s soul searching process to understand what happened this Tuesday has only just commenced.

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