‘Keep fighting': Harris gives concession speech at Howard U

Mayor Muriel Bowser's team has been bracing for a second Donald Trump term that makes good on the former president's threats to "take over" D.C.

While on the campaign trail, Trump threatened a federal takeover of D.C. Any president of the United States has enormous power when it comes to D.C. because it's not a state. The president can take over the police department and many of the powers the mayor and D.C. Council have.

Trump made the District, whose residents are overwhelmingly Democrats, a target in his re-election campaign.

"We will take over the horribly run capital of our nation in Washington, D.C., and clean it up, renovate it and rebuild our capital city so there is no longer a nightmare of murder and crime," Trump said while campaigning in Florida over the summer. "But, rather, it will become the most beautiful capital anywhere in the world. Right now, if you leave Florida – let's go, darling. Let's look at the Jefferson Memorial, let's look at the Washington Monument. Let's go and look at some of the beautiful scenes, and you end up getting shot, mugged, raped."

During a separate campaign stop, Trump said: "And we're going to take it away from the mayor. And, again, that doesn't make me popular there, but I have to say it."

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has publicly commented for the first time on President-elect Donald Trump’s win. In a statement, she said she’ll support the transition process and continue to advance the priorities of the District.

In a post on X, Bowser said: “As the nation’s capital, we are proud to fulfill our role in the peaceful transition of power. We will actively support the incoming Trump Administration’s transition process and the 60th Presidential Inauguration of President-elect Trump. As your mayor, I have worked with three presidents, including President-elect Trump, and congressional leaders of both parties to advance the priorities of the District — infrastructure, housing affordability, downtown revitalization and our self-determination. And driven by our values, we will pursue a collaborative approach to our federal priorities in the District."

Her statement concluded: "We thank the DC Board of Elections and election officials across the country for conducting a free and fair election. And we congratulate DC councilmembers and commissioners, members of Congress and President-elect Trump on their victories."

The vice president used part of her concession speech from her alma mater’s campus to address younger voters.

“To the young people who are watching,” Harris said, prompting a roar from the audience at Howard, “it is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know that it’s going to be OK.”

“On the campaign, I would often say, ‘When we fight, we win,’” Harris told the crowd, many of them in tears. “But here’s the thing: Sometime the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win. That doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is don’t ever give up, don’t ever give up, don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place.”  

“And don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before,” she added.

Harris delivered her concession speech from Howard University's campus.

It's available to view in its entirety here:

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson says he supports the democratic process and a peaceful transition of power, "even when we are unhappy with the results," he wrote in a brief statement this afternoon.

"And despite our internal disagreements over how things could be better, we, the District of Columbia, have a very good city, financially sound, and well run. We will remain focused on our strengths, protect our autonomy, and make sure no one tries to take that away from us," his statement concluded.

An audience at Howard University chanted Kamala Harris’ name as she took the stage to publicly concede the presidential race to Trump.

Harris said she spoke to the president-elect earlier today and emphasized a peaceful transfer of power.

And she remained resolute in her bid for president.

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

Kamala Harris conceded to Donald Trump in a speech at Howard University and said she will help Trump enact a peaceful transfer of power.

“The light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting,” she said.

Harris said, “This is not a time to throw up our hands; it’s a time to roll up our sleeves.” She spoke about her ongoing commitment to the ideals of the United States and finding unity as Americans.

Vice President Kamala Harris has arrived at Howard University and will concede the race for the presidency to President-elect Donald Trump.

Her speech to the American people will end a historic, 100-day dash to become the 47th President of the U.S., which began after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July.

A large crowd is waiting at the campaign staging area on Howard's campus. She is expected to speak shortly after 4 p.m.

President Biden spoke with both Harris and Trump by phone Wednesday afternoon, the White House said.

Biden congratulated the vice president on her historic campaign.

In his call to President-elect Trump, Biden congratulated him, the White House said. Biden "emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together," and said he was committed to ensuring a smooth transition, according to the White House.

Staff for Biden and Trump plan to coordinate a specific date for the two to meet at the White House in the near future.

Biden is expected to address the nation Thursday to discuss the election results and the transition between presidents.

What changed for Trump between the 2020 and 2024 elections?

NBC News, in conjunction with a consortium of news organizations, conducted exit polls across 10 key states both at polling locations and over the phone. Those states are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

One of the largest shifts was among Hispanic voters – particularly Hispanic men. In 2020, 32% of Hispanic voters went for Trump, the data says. In 2024, Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters.

Trump also won over a larger share of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, counting 36% in 2020 and 42% in 2024.

Check out all the data here.

Workers continued construction of a platform outside the U.S. Capitol for Inauguration Day.

Here’s a look at their progress on Wednesday, after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election and became president-elect.

Justice Department officials have been evaluating how to wind down the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office to comply with longstanding department policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

The latest discussions stand in contrast with the pre-election legal posture of special counsel Jack Smith, who in recent weeks took significant steps in the election interference case against Trump without regard to the electoral calendar.

But the sources say DOJ officials have come to grips with the fact that no trial is possible any time soon in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents matter — both of which are mired in legal issues that would likely prompt an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, even if Trump had lost the election.

Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said. Get the full story here.

Vice President Kamala Harris called President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on winning the 2024 presidential election, according to a senior Harris aide.

Harris discussed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans, the aide said.

Two other Harris aides also said Harris spent the morning and afternoon working on her concession speech, which she will deliver at 4 p.m. at D.C.’s Howard University.

One of those aides said Harris’ team before today had spent very little time working on a concession or victory speech. Instead, the Harris team had spent the bulk of their time creating a speech that would tell people to “hold on” because they expected the race results to be uncertain at this time in the week.

Prior to the 2024 election, American University history professor Allan Lichtman had correctly predicted 9 out of the past 10 presidential elections since 1984, NBC News reported.

He incorrectly predicted Kamala Harris would win the 2024 presidential race and said on X on Wednesday that he will discuss on Thursday why he got it wrong.

“I admit that I was wrong. I will assess the election and the keys on my live show this Thursday at 9 PM Eastern,” he said.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his "extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory."

“Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love,” he said in a post on X.

Bezos drew intense criticism in recent weeks after his newspaper declined to endorse a presidential candidate this year and decided to stop making presidential endorsements altogether. The billionaire businessman, who acquired the newspaper in 2013, defended the move as an attempt to combat perceptions of media bias and restore trust among readers.

“We are in trouble. We’re just in trouble,” one woman said in downtown D.C. Wednesday morning after election night and President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.

Another voter said: “We’ve lived through him before. I think we will survive through this one, but I’m very disappointed.”

News4 spoke with people downtown as boards were removed from the windows of a CVS on K Street NW. Boards on other windows downtown remained up on Wednesday morning. After heightened security and fears of possible violence, D.C. police told News4 they made no arrests overnight.

The prospect of a second Trump presidency was met with excitement at events across the U.S., including outside Trump Tower in New York City on election night.

A stretch of Georgia Avenue NW near Howard University is shut down again as Kamala Harris is expected to address the nation Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Georgia Avenue is closed between V and Harvard streets NW, D.C. police said. Several other streets around Howard remain shut down after Harris hosted her election night watch party on the campus.

Georgia Avenue had reopened for several hours on Wednesday morning.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to deliver a speech to the country and her supporters at 4 p.m. at Howard University, her alma mater, a campaign aide confirmed to NBC News. She is expected to officially concede the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump.

Harris and President Joe Biden also plan to call Trump Wednesday to congratulate him.

Read more.

Vice President-elect JD Vance turned to X to thank his wife, President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters after Trump won the presidential election.

Vance, a resident of Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood, wrote: "THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this. To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level. And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you."

The Ohio senator is expected to move into the vice president's residence in Northwest D.C., on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory – Vice President Kamala Harris’ current home.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley celebrated Trump’s White House return and said his side of the aisle “is Donald Trump’s party.”

Whatley called Tuesday night’s victory a “fundamental realignment of American politics” with “a historic shift with Black voters, with Asian voters, with Hispanic voters.”

“We are very happy that there is going to be a focus on America and there’s going to be a focus on American families,” Whatley told Fox News.

Exit polls showed Trump made big strides with Latino voters, who went 53% to 45% to Harris after going 66-32 for Biden four years ago. Black voters remained generally loyal to the Democratic ticket (86-12 for Harris, 87-12 for Biden) but was a smaller share of the total vote in 2024 versus 2020, down to 11% from 13%.

A Michigan man who showed up to the visitors’ center of the U.S. Capitol on Election Day smelling like fuel and carrying a torch and a flare gun also brought an apparent manifesto about war in the Middle East, police say.

Austin M. Olson, 28, of Westland, Michigan, is charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, unlawful activities and disorderly conduct, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) said Wednesday morning.

USCP said Olson was in the process of going through security at the Capitol Visitor Center about 12:30 p.m. when officers discovered the torch and flare gun in his jacket.

Police also found “what appears to be a manifesto” and a letter to Congress about the suspect’s opinions on war in the Middle East, USCP said. Police did not elaborate on what the letter said, and the agency is still trying to figure out why Olson showed up at the Capitol with those items, USCP said.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that as of Wednesday morning, the president-elect has not received any kind of call from Harris or Biden.

Here's how cities, counties and congressional districts in the DMV voted. Choose which race you're interested in at the top, then click a district to zoom in.

Republican Derrick Anderson said that there are "thousands of outstanding ballots to count" in Virginia's 7th Congressional District in a statement on X.

"Simply put, like so many other races across the country, this race remains too close to call," Anderson said on X. "And like many other races across the country, it has not been called by any major media outlet."

His opponent Democrat Eugene Vindman declared victory in the critical 7th Congressional District.

According to Anderson's statement, a local media outlet misreported a false race call Tuesday night, "causing a considerable amount of confusion and misreporting."

NBC News has not declared a winner in the race, and Republican Derrick Anderson has not conceded.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to deliver a speech to the country and her supporters at her alma mater Howard University, a campaign co-chair confirmed to NBC News.

Her election night watch party was held at Howard Tuesday night. The campus served as a headquarters, and Harris had hoped to make a victory speech there.

Although she did not speak to her supporters on election night, her campaign co-chair promised she would speak on Wednesday.

"But you will hear from her tomorrow because she will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters but to address the nation," campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said.

The speech comes after President-Elect Donald Trump gained victory in the election results.

University of Maryland government and politics professor Breanna Gray spoke with News4 on Wednesday morning about what took President-elect Donald Trump over the edge to win the presidency again.

Gray pointed to three factors she said stood out: the gender divide, the rural/urban divide and the composition of voters racially.

“In a lot of these cases, we’re seeing that the rural/urban divide really was a telling story about Democratic losses,” she said.

Trump had an advantage with Latino men and young white men. Stay with News4 for video showing Gray’s remarks.

Howard University's The Yard was left empty after Vice President Kamala Harris' election night watch party held on Tuesday night.

See the aftermath and how supporters reacted as the election results came in throughout the night.

See it: Harris supporters' reactions at Howard U. election night watch party

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WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 06: Chairs and trash sit in an empty field after the election night watch party for Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at Howard University on November 06, 2024 in Wshington, DC. Americans cast their ballots today in the presidential race between Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as multiple state elections that will determine the balance of power in Congress. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Kamala Harris won D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The race in Virginia has the most narrow margin by far.

• U.S. President, Virginia

  99% reporting

  Source: NBC News Decision Desk

  Projected Winner

  • Kamala Harris

    51.8%

    2,335,395

  • Donald Trump

    46.1%

    2,075,085

  • Jill Stein

    0.8%

    34,888

  • Write-ins

    0.5%

    23,365

  • Chase Oliver

    0.4%

    19,814

  • Cornel West

    0.2%

    8,984

  • Claudia De la Cruz

    0.2%

    8,410

• 0% reporting

• 0% reporting

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks made history Tuesday night after becoming Maryland's first Black politician elected to the U.S. Senate and only the state's second woman.

Alsobrooks acknowledged that over 2,000 people have served in the Senate and only three people have looked like her.

“And so I want to salute all those who came before me, who made it possible for me to stand on this stage tonight, whose sacrifices and stories I will continue to carry with me,” she added to cheers from supporters.

Blunt Rochester, a Democrat representing the at-large congressional district of Delaware, became the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in the Senate.

Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin congratulated President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance on their victory in a message posted on social media platform X.

Former President Donald Trump claimed victory in remarks to supporters after winning critical swing states.

"Look what happened. Is this crazy?" He said hours before NBC News projected him to retake the White House.

National civil rights organizations from the NAACP to the ACLU have spoken out against Project 2025 and the sweeping changes the document proposes for the federal government.

They also warn that the policies outlined in the document would have a disproportionate effect on African Americans. The nation's largest population of wealthy Black people live in the DMV, especially in Prince George's County and Charles County.

Many of the region’s middle-class and upper-middle-class Black families have been built around federal work, and the government is the area’s largest employer.

The document lays out the return of former President Donald Trump’s Schedule F executive order, which was reversed by President Joe Biden. It would strip job protections from career officials in policy roles, make it easier to fire civil servants and require loyalty to the president.

Though former Trump officials helped craft Project 2025 and the plan praises Trump’s administration, the former president has distanced himself from it.

Democrat April McClain Delaney is running against Republican Neil Parrott to replace Democratic Rep. David Trone, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate.

McClain has taken a 300-vote lead over Parrott overnight.

Neither campaign has declared victory yet. McClain left her headquarters Tuesday night without making remarks. If she remains in the lead, she will take Trone's seat in the Senate.

• 0% reporting

Democrat Suhas Subramanyam is projected to defeat Republican Mike Clancy in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District — a victory for Democrats hoping to cement their hold on an open House seat in their battle to control Congress.

• U.S. House Virginia 10th District

  99% reporting

  Source: NBC News Decision Desk

  Projected Winner

  • Suhas Subramanyam

    52.3%

    215,131

  • Mike Clancy

    47.7%

    196,343

There are still a couple of local U.S. House races we're watching this morning.

In Virginia, Democrat Eugene Vindman declared victory in the critical 7th Congressional District.

NBC News has not declared a winner in the race, and Republican Derrick Anderson has not conceded.

• 0% reporting

Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember Trayon White won reelection as he faces a federal bribery charge.

White was arrested by federal agents in August after prosecutors said he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for pressuring government officials to extend contracts dedicated to violence prevention and youth services. He pleaded not guilty.

Some Ward 8 residents said they still support White despite the charge while some say Ward 8 deserves better.

• 0% reporting

D.C. police have lifted road closures along the 2000 – 2900 blocks of Georgia Avenue NW in both directions following Kamala Harris' election night watch party on the Howard University campus, police said on X.

All remaining street closures will stay in effect until further notice. See a full list of road closures here.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia won reelection to his third term Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Hung Cao.

“Thank you so much for putting your faith in me,” Kaine told supporters at a speech in Richmond Tuesday night. “And you may or may not, over the course of the next six years, agree or disagree with this or that. But I won’t embarrass you. I won’t let you down. I won’t cause you to lose a moment of sleep. And we will keep moving Virginia and this country forward.”

Cao said in a statement that he wouldn't call Kaine until all of the votes were counted, although he acknowledged that the chances of him winning were “mathematically almost impossible.”

• 0% reporting

Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to speak Tuesday night at her election headquarters at her alma mater Howard University, but she's delaying that speech to later Wednesday.

We're still waiting for those specifics on when we'll hear from Harris today.

The celebratory mood at Vice President Kamala Harris' watch party shifted as the results started pouring in and former President Donald Trump took a commanding lead.

Harris' campaign co-chair thanked the crowd and delivered the news that the vice president would not be addressing them.

Democrat Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks won a U.S. Senate seat against former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday

Alsobrooks became the first Black candidate to be elected senator in Maryland.

“It’s remarkable to think that in two years, America will celebrate its 250th birthday. In all those years, there’ve been more than 2,000 people who’ve served in the United States Senate, and only three have looked like me,” Alsobrooks said at her watch party.

In conceding Maryland's U.S. Senate race Tuesday night, Hogan congratulated Alsobrooks and praised the voters he met on the campaign trail.

“In our nation’s history, only three African American women have ever served in U.S. Senate,” Hogan told the audience at his watch party Tuesday night. “Tonight, regardless of who you voted for, we can all take pride in the election of the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the United States Senate.”