Kamala Harris went back to work on Monday to do something she desperately hoped would never happen.
The vice president presided over Congress for likely the last time to certify the election results of a rival she still believes is a threat to democracy.
She didn’t explicitly acknowledge that belief during the ceremony, sticking instead to the procedure for directing the certification as members of the House and Senate jointly totaled electoral college votes from each state.
The process had partisan undertones, with Republican lawmakers clapping for states that President-elect Donald Trump won and Democrats clapping for states that Harris won. Harris didn’t join in on any of the applause, though she smiled and nodded after announcing the final tally she received.
While some friends and allies close to her predicted it would be a somber moment for the former Democratic presidential nominee as she fulfills her duty as the president of the Senate, they also said her loyalty to the rule of law would supersede any emotion.
“She’s a human being,” said Rep. Lateefah Simon, a new member of Congress and mentee of Harris who worked with her in her San Francisco district attorney’s office. “I’m sure it’s going to be a very intense time, but like I said, she is the truest of true public servants.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Harris ally, told NOTUS, “I think she’ll do it with grace and dignity.”
Harris oversaw the joint session of Congress, an anticlimactic affair compared to four years ago, as members opened sealed certificates from all 50 states that contain their electoral vote tallies. By federal law, this happens every Jan. 6 after a presidential election and is overseen by the sitting vice president.
But after a bruising campaign against Trump, where slights blew way past normal politics and often veered into personal attacks, allies said beforehand that it could feel more stinging even if it remains routine.
“It might be sad,” one Harris aide told NOTUS. “Especially for the people who hoped she would win.”
To that end, Harris released a prerecorded video addressing the reason why she was on the dais to certify the electoral count.
“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,” she says in the video, per a transcript obtained before its release by NOTUS. “Today, at the United States Capitol, 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.”
Her comments mirrored the tone and message of her concession speech in November, which called on her supporters to continue to be civically engaged despite the campaign’s emotional but decisive loss. Her aides said her participation in Monday’s certification was an extension of her final campaign promise to be a part of a peaceful transfer of power from the Biden administration to the future Trump administration.
“The vice president understands that our democracy requires elected leaders who have taken the sacred oath of office and everyday citizens alike to actively preserve it,” a senior aide said. “It is with this deep sense of responsibility and duty in mind that the vice president will certify the presidential election on Jan. 6 and reaffirm the will of the American people.”
And in the video, Harris cast her duty as one that reestablished the norm destabilized after the attack on the Capitol four years ago.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile. And it is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles,” she said.
Harris is not the first vice president to run for and lose the presidency, thus having to certify their own defeat. Harris follows in the footsteps of the likes of Al Gore, who in 2001 had to quell more than a dozen lawmakers in his own party who objected to the results to formally declare his opponent president.
“Al Gore came across as a big person by the way he handled himself,” vice presidential historian Joel Goldstein said, looking back on that moment. “He followed the law and he played it by the rules.”
Richard Nixon was also a member of that small club when he had to certify his own defeat against John F. Kennedy in 1961 — and even made a statement praising the “stability of our constitutional system” amid doubts from some in his party over voter fraud.
“In our campaigns, 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,” he said at the time.
The obvious cloud hanging over Monday’s proceedings (other than the snowstorm) was the 2021 riot. Just about four years ago from the time she took her seat at the Capitol, Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building.
That’s just a slice of the chaos that took place as Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol, seeking to stop the electoral count over fraud accusations. The fiasco only fully ended when Vice President Mike Pence presided over the certification after the rioters had been cleared out, despite the direct threats on his life and pressure from Trump to reject the results.
Marc Short, Pence’s close aide at the time, said, “When people in Trump’s orbit were arguing that the vice president has this magical power, we said, ‘You don’t want to have that precedent in four years when Kamala Harris is in the chair.’”
But this time, Democrats have not questioned the validity of the election results. And there were no objections on the House floor Monday.
Harris didn’t ask lawmakers if they had any objections after calling for each state’s vote tally, something Pence asked in 2021.
“I think it’s important to uphold the integrity of the system when you win, but it’s even more important to do it when you lose,” Short said. “I think it’s important she do it.”
Asked what it would be like for Harris to take Pence’s spot now, Sen. Chris Murphy put it bluntly: “We’re going to have a peaceful transition because Democrats don’t want anything to do with violence as a means of trying to overturn elections.”
For Harris, those close to her said ahead of the certification it’s just a part of her “doing her job.”
“She’s always done her job, you know,” one senior campaign aide said. “I was just thinking to myself today, like, ‘Can you imagine her having a rally on the Mall tomorrow and sending all these people to the Hill to complain?’ Like, it’s just not even a normal possibility.”
Questions still swirl around D.C. over what Harris’ next step will be, as a politician who is only 60 years old. One ally said Harris spent the time after the election processing and another said she’s spent it consoling others saddened by her defeat. But all who spoke to NOTUS said they expected her to meet Monday’s moment not as candidate Harris, but as vice president.
“She said to me after the election, ‘We don’t only love this country when we win,’” Simon told NOTUS. Harris is expected to also ceremonially swear in Simon on Monday. “I know that she will embrace the dignity of that role in certifying the election so the American people and its government can get to work.”
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Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS. Torrence Banks and Shifra Dayak contributed reporting.