This January 6, Kamala Harris has a golden opportunity to reaffirm the Constitution and celebrate republican government.
She can make a memorable mark, one that Americans of every political affiliation would applaud even in our turbulent, divisive times.
All she has to do is channel...Richard Nixon?
On another January 6 – 1961 – then-Vice President Nixon carried out his obligation as President of the Senate by presiding over the counting of elector certificates in a joint session of Congress in the House chamber.
It was then and there that he officially lost the 1960 general election to John F. Kennedy.
Likewise, the duty of presiding over her own defeat falls to Vice President Harris.
Such a moment is highly unusual. It last occurred following the contentious 2000 election, when then-Vice President Al Gore certified his loss to George W. Bush, which he did with good cheer.
But it was Nixon who set the standard for the unenviable scenario in which only a few Americans have found themselves.
Like 2000, the 1960 election was extremely tight. The popular vote saw Kennedy with 49.7 percent and Nixon with 49.5 percent. Many urged Nixon to protest and pursue irregularities in the vote count, particularly from Cook County, Illinois, and certain precincts in Texas, the home state of the incoming vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Nixon flatly refused, believing that it would undermine unity and faith in the electoral system. Instead, he became the officiant of what many thought was – erroneously, as it turned out – his own political funeral.
Rather than an occasion of awkwardness, self-pity, or bitterness, Nixon led an elegant and cheerful celebration of constitutional government.
When Alabama – the first state to be counted – awarded six electoral votes to Sen. Harry F. Byrd of Virginia and five to Kennedy, Nixon deadpanned “The gentleman from Virginia is in the lead.”
Once the votes had been tallied and his excruciating loss became official, Nixon addressed Congress succinctly and without notes. He said in part:
“This is the first time in one hundred years that a candidate for the presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated...I do not think we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition of the American people of developing, respecting, and honoring institutions of self-government.”
Following his entire statement, which can be seen below, he received a rousing and well-deserved ovation from Congress.
Vice President Harris has a difficult task in front of her. It would be horrible to certify one’s rejection by the American electorate.
We shall see if she will follow the example set by Nixon and emulated by Gore, and do what is best for the republic. She can, as we do at Convention of States, nobly stand up to venerate self-government and the Constitution to provide, if only for a moment, grace and reconciliation in our politics that has not been seen in some time.
