Kamala Harris Joins Al Gore in Exclusive Club as She's Forced to Certify Her Own Loss
On Monday Kamala Harris joined a unique club of vice presidents who have presided over certifying their own losses for the presidential race.
The last time it happened was 2000 in the hotly contested race between Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Democrat Vice President Al Gore.
Bush won the Electoral College vote by a narrow 271 to 266 over Gore, just one Electoral College vote more than the 270 required to win.
The race all came down to the election result in Florida, which Bush carried by just over 500 votes after a recount of the entire state. The U.S. Supreme Court had stepped in to prevent Democrat efforts towards further recounts in counties that favored Gore.
Gore carried the popular tally, by just a little more than 500,000.
So the election could not have been closer, nor the result more contentious.
Nonetheless, Gore closed the joint session of Congress certifying his Electoral College loss saying, “May God bless our new president and our new vice president, and may God bless the United States of America.”
Similarly, Harris announced Monday that she would honor the election results and fulfill her constitutional duty certifying Donald Trump as the 47th president.
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris said in a video posted to social media. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
“Today, at the United States Capitol,” she 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.”
Today, I will perform my constitutional duty as Vice President 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 unwavering faith in the American people. pic.twitter.com/w21HzdNxGs
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 6, 2025
Harris appeared to make a slight reference to the Electoral College certification protests at the Capitol regarding the 2020 election saying, “As we have seen our democracy can be fragile, and it is up to then each one of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”
Election law and procedure changes regarding mail-in ballots in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, particularly in key swing states, cast doubt in the minds of many regarding the integrity of the results.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released in 2022 on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 incursion found only 20 percent of respondents said they were “very confident” in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system overall.
Another 39 percent said they were “somewhat confident,” 27 percent “not so confident” and 14 percent “not confident at all.” So 80 percent of those surveyed had at least some level of concern about the integrity of our elections.
Trump’s victory over Harris was much larger — 312 to 226 in the Electoral College — than Bush’s over Gore, so this year’s certification should not be controversial.
.@VP Kamala Harris: “This announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States, each for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025.” pic.twitter.com/ePBAZ9i08q
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 6, 2025
In 1960, then-Vice President Richard Nixon presided over the certification of Democrat John F. Kennedy to be the 35th president, The New York Times reported.
Though Nixon lost decisively in the Electoral College vote, he fell short in the popular vote by just approximately 119,000 ballots of the nearly 69 million cast.
The vice president noted it had been the first time in a century that a presidential candidate had to oversee certifying his own election loss.
Nixon called the situation a “striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system” and institutions of self-government.
“In our campaigns,” he said, “no matter how hard-fought they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict and support those who win.”
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