The Best Lines from Kamala Harris’ Concession Speech: ‘Sometimes the Fight Takes a While’

After an electrical 107-day marketing campaign that made historical past, challenged conventional norms of political management and centered equality for all People, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a concession speech at Howard College, acknowledging the result of the election was not what she had hoped for however emphasizing the enduring promise of America.

She expressed gratitude to her workforce, volunteers and supporters, highlighting the marketing campaign’s concentrate on unity and neighborhood. Harris emphasised the significance of a peaceable switch of energy and reaffirmed her dedication to combating for freedom, alternative and justice. She urged younger individuals to remain engaged and impressed, drawing on historic resilience and the sunshine of optimism and repair to information the nation ahead.

As she spoke, the digicam reduce to listeners and supporters at rapt consideration, lots of whom have been in tears.

Watch it in full beneath, or learn on to listen to from Harris—the primary girl, the primary Black girl and the primary South Asian particular person to function vp of the USA—in her personal phrases.

The end result of this election isn’t what we needed, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, however hear me after I say: The sunshine of America’s promise will at all times burn brilliant, so long as we by no means surrender, and so long as we maintain combating.

Over the 107 days of this marketing campaign, we’ve got been intentional about constructing neighborhood and constructing coalitions, bringing individuals collectively from each stroll of life and background, united by love of nation, with enthusiasm and pleasure in our battle for America’s future. And we did it with the data that all of us have a lot extra in frequent than what separates us.

In our nation, we owe loyalty to not a president or a celebration, however to the Structure of the USA.

Whereas I concede this election, I don’t concede the battle that fuels this marketing campaign, the battle for freedom, for alternative, for equity and the dignity of all individuals—a battle for the beliefs on the coronary heart of our nation, the beliefs that replicate America at our greatest. That could be a battle I’ll by no means surrender. …

I’ll by no means surrender the battle for a future the place People can pursue their goals, ambitions and aspirations, the place the ladies of America have the liberty to make selections about their very own our bodies and never have their authorities telling them what to do.

We’ll proceed to wage this battle within the voting sales space, within the courts and within the public sq.. We may also wage it in quieter methods, in how we dwell our lives, by treating each other with kindness and respect, by wanting within the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbor, by at all times utilizing our power to carry individuals up.

Exhausting work is nice work. Exhausting work may be joyful work. And the battle for our nation is at all times price it.

I’ll usually say that after we battle, we win. However right here’s the factor: Typically the battle takes some time. That doesn’t imply we gained’t win.

A lot of you recognize, I began out as a prosecutor. All through my profession, I noticed individuals at among the worst occasions of their lives, individuals who had suffered nice hurt and nice ache and but discovered inside themselves the power and the braveness and the resolve to take the stand to take a stand to battle for justice, to battle for themselves, to battle for others. So let their braveness be our inspiration.

There’s an adage a historian as soon as known as ‘a legislation of historical past,’ true of each society throughout the ages. The adage is: ‘Solely when it’s darkish sufficient, are you able to see the celebrities.’

I do know many individuals really feel like we’re getting into a darkish time. … America, whether it is, allow us to fill the sky with the sunshine of a superb, good billion stars—the sunshine of optimism, of religion, of fact and repair, could that work information us, even within the face of setbacks towards the extraordinary promise of the USA of America.

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