The vice presidency comes with plenty of indignities, but probably none greater than the one that Kamala Harris endured on Monday when she presided over the certification of her own defeat.
Standing in the rostrum of the House of Representatives, a gavel in her hand and a look of imperturbable stoicism on her face, Ms. Harris officiated as the two houses of Congress met in joint session to formally count the Electoral College votes for president.
“The votes for president of the United States are as follows,” she declared after each state’s totals were read. “Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes.” At that point, Republican lawmakers rose to their feet to applaud. Ms. Harris gave a small, polite smile as she let them have their moment.
Then she continued. “Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes,” she intoned. Now it was the Democrats’ turn to stand and applaud. Ms. Harris glanced over to that side of the chamber with a little smile of thanks, then gently gaveled the body to order. After reading the votes certifying JD Vance as vice president, she formally ordered the results entered in the record.
And with that, Kamala Harris the vice president officially put an end to Kamala Harris the candidate’s quest for the presidency — at least for this election. At that point, members of both parties rose to applaud, seemingly out of respect for the no-doubt-painful task she had just taken on without complaint or objection.
There was also certainly a little bit of relief that everyone had gotten through the moment peacefully, unlike the maelstrom visited upon the Capitol on this day four years earlier when Mr. Trump refused to accept defeat and inspired a mob that stormed the building to try to stop the count certifying it.
Ms. Harris made no comments while wielding the gavel beyond her scripted duties, but she released a video earlier in the day making an implicit comparison between the orderly transfer of power that she was to oversee and Mr. Trump’s efforts to thwart the will of the voters and hold on to power.
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Ms. Harris said in the video. “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.”
Unlike Mr. Trump, Ms. Harris has made no effort to cast doubt on the election but has instead accepted defeat graciously. Neither she nor President Biden has sought to pressure the Justice Department, members of Congress, governors, state legislators or election officials to reverse the vote she lost, as Mr. Trump did four years ago.
She has not filed dozens of lawsuits that would be tossed out by judges as frivolous or unfounded. She has not repeated false fraud allegations or wild conspiracy theories that her own advisers told her were untrue.
Nor did she use her role as presiding officer to reject votes for Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance the way Mr. Trump tried to get Vice President Mike Pence to do to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris in 2021. Mr. Pence refused, saying he did not have such power, and Congress subsequently passed a law reaffirming that interpretation.
The contrast between Jan. 6, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2025, could hardly be starker. Four years ago, the mob ransacking the Capitol chanted, “Hang Mike Pence,” while the Secret Service rushed the outgoing vice president to safety. Ms. Harris, then a senator on the verge of becoming vice president, was at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the time and also had to be evacuated, when a pipe bomb was found near a park bench outside.
Ms. Harris has largely remained out of public view since the election amid speculation about what her future may hold. Some allies want her to run for president again in 2028, while others believe she should instead run for governor of California next year. She has not given any public indication about her thoughts beyond saying she intends to remain active.
Ms. Harris is not the first vice president to lose a presidential election and preside over its certification. In modern times, two sitting vice presidents who lost achingly close races for president — Richard M. Nixon in 1960 and Al Gore in 2000 — had to stand in the rostrum where she stood and count the votes against them.
Another vice president who lost a presidential bid, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, skipped the ceremony to attend the funeral of the first U.N. secretary general, leaving the task of counting the votes to Senator Richard Russell, Democrat of Georgia and the president pro tempore of the Senate. Other vice presidents had to preside over vote counts certifying their defeat for re-election, including Walter F. Mondale in 1981, Dan Quayle in 1993 and, of course, Mr. Pence in 2021.
Both Mr. Nixon and Mr. Gore had plenty of motive to object to the outcomes that they certified. Mr. Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy by about 118,000 votes out of nearly 69 million cast. Advisers urged him to challenge the results but he refused, maintaining that it would tear the country apart.
Forty years later, Mr. Gore actually won the popular tally by more than 500,000 votes out of 105 million cast, only to fall short in the Electoral College. After the Supreme Court ended five weeks of recounts in Florida, Mr. Gore accepted the decision of the justices and congratulated George W. Bush.
Both vice presidents performed the duty of certifying their defeats with determined humor and grace, generating standing ovations from members of both parties.
Noting that it was the first time in a century that a presidential candidate had finalized the results of an election he lost, Mr. 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.”
When his turn came, Mr. Gore even repeatedly ruled out of order efforts by a handful of House Democrats to object to the Florida vote. “May God bless our new president and our new vice president,” Mr. Gore said after declaring Mr. Bush the winner, “and may God bless the United States of America.”