Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday certified her loss to President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 general election.
Harris spent several minutes on the House dais speaking and laughing with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) before gaveling in the joint session of Congress.
The vice president drew a standing ovation from Democratic lawmakers after reading out her total Electoral College votes. Republicans similarly cheered as Trump’s totals were announced.
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Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226 votes by carrying the major swing states. He also was the first GOP president to win the popular vote in 20 years, netting 77.3 million votes to Harris’s 75 million.
Harris quickly departed the House floor after reading the final certification and gaveling out the joint session. As the vice president exited, her successor, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, was seen taking selfies with a number of Republican lawmakers.
In all, the day proved an extremely unremarkable yet professional turn following the events of the prior cycle’s certification.
On Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of overturning his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden after Harris’s predecessor, former Vice President Mike Pence, refused to block the certification of Biden’s victory.
Harris isn’t the first vice president to certify their own electoral defeat. Both former President Richard Nixon and former Vice President Al Gore performed that same duty following the 1960 and 2000 elections, respectively.
Gore notably silenced a number of Democratic lawmakers on Jan. 6, 2001, who sought to object to former President George W. Bush’s narrow victory. Gore won the popular vote but fell short of the Electoral College threshold, beginning weeks of recounts in Florida before he conceded to Bush.
The Constitution expressly appoints the vice president to oversee the electoral certification process but does not specifically require them to do so. Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey skipped the certification of the 1968 election, which he lost, to attend a funeral.
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Harris has rarely appeared in public following the 2024 election, but she said in a video posted to social media Monday morning, “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy.”
“As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny,” the vice president continued. “I will perform my constitutional duty as vice president of the United States to certify the results of the 2024 election. This duty is a sacred obligation — one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.”