Harris prepares to concede race to Trump after decisive electoral defeat

Harris will call Trump later on Wednesday, according to NBC News, with a public concession planned for 4 p.m. at Howard University, her alma mater.

The delay, which comes after she declined to address supporters during her watch party on Tuesday night, has prompted complaints from Republicans, with ex-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Trump’s former primary rival, calling on her to unify the country.

“That begins with Kamala Harris conceding. You can’t just talk about unity in a campaign, you have to show it regardless of the outcome,” Haley said on Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Trump at 2:24 a.m. Eastern time, effectively closing off her last path to the nomination.

Trump surpassed the magic threshold of 270 electoral votes shortly after 5:30 a.m., when Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes were awarded to him. He will become the first president in 127 years to serve two nonconsecutive terms in office, joining Grover Cleveland as the only man to return to the White House in such a manner.

Trump also appears to be comfortably on track to win the popular vote, becoming the first Republican since George W. Bush in 2004 to achieve this feat.

Trump did not hesitate to declare victory, giving a speech at his Florida watch party early Wednesday morning.

“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again,” Trump told his supporters while flanked by his family at his victory night party.

He won North Carolina and, shortly after, flipped Georgia, which had turned blue in 2020. When the battleground state of Pennsylvania turned red, it signaled the end for Harris’s slim hopes.

A dejected Harris camp saw the writing on the wall earlier in the night, telling supporters who had gathered for her watch party to go home. The move to send out co-chairman Cedric Richmond echoed that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s doomed campaign in 2016.

“Against all odds, Donald Trump has not only pulled off the greatest comeback in political history but may be one of the greatest comebacks in American history,” Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, told the Washington Examiner early Wednesday morning.

Republicans are calling for Harris to make things official, and some have become frustrated with the lack of communication as Trump looks set to win the race handily.

“Why is she not speaking tonight?” conservative columnist Marc Thiessen said on Fox News as the outcome became clear. “She lost. Did she just go to bed? Wisconsin has been called. It’s over. Why is she not coming out and conceding? It’s shameful.”

The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns, seeking comment.

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The hashtag #DoNotConcedeKamala was trending on X as of Wednesday morning.

Trump famously refused to concede his defeat to President Joe Biden in 2020, filing several unsuccessful lawsuits as he claimed the election had been stolen from him.