Analysis: Few vice presidents have been in Harris' position

 

Vice President Kamala Harris is handed a certification as the joint session of Congress convenes to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election on Monday, January 6, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. 

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris is the person who officially announced her rival in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, won the Electoral College vote.

It is relatively rare that a sitting vice president gets his or her party’s presidential nomination — and that they then lose the election and have to oversee the counting of the electoral votes, certifying their own loss.

Harris endured one of the most humbling experiences in US politics, but also one of the most important functions in the peaceful transfer of power. Three other vice presidents have endured this indignity, all in extremely contentious circumstances. Another vice president skipped the counting.

• In 1861, Vice President John Breckinridge, who lost the 1860 election, oversaw the counting of electoral votes that made Abraham Lincoln president, at a time when Southern states seceded from the country rather than accept Lincoln’s 1860 victory.
• Vice President Richard Nixon narrowly lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy and oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 1961. Nixon would return to victory eight years later.
• Vice President Hubert Humphrey, whom Nixon defeated in 1968, skipped the counting of electoral votes confirming Nixon’s win in 1969 to attend a funeral.
• Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election in 2000 after a controversial Supreme Court decision, and he oversaw the counting of electoral votes in 2001 that made George W. Bush president.

Four years ago, Vice President Mike Pence oversaw the counting of votes that confirmed his loss in a bid for reelection to the vice presidency, which is somewhat different from being on top of the ticket. Pence, however, refused to acquiesce to Trump’s demand that he could reject electoral votes in key states that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Trump won those states in his 2024 campaign against Harris. Congress clarified after Trump’s pressure on Pence that the vice president’s role in the process is only ceremonial.