Just hours after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the 2024 election to Republican Donald Trump, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint congratulated the president-elect on his victory.
“We congratulate President-elect Donald Trump on his election as the 47th president of the United States of America. We invite all to pray for him, other elected officers, and leaders of nations around the world,” said the church’s governing First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in a news release Wednesday evening. “Praying for those in public office is a long tradition in [the church]. Given the difficult challenges of our day, it is vital that we look to God for guidance and blessing and seek to be peacemakers in our homes and communities.”
The Latter-day Saint leaders also commended Harris “for her candidacy” and thanked her and President Joe Biden “for their public service at the nation’s highest levels. We wish them both well for the years ahead.”
For some time, it has been the tradition for the Utah-based global faith to send a similar note to the incoming president upon election.
In 2012, the church acted even more quickly, congratulating President Barack Obama on election night in winning a second term after he defeated Republican Mitt Romney, the first Latter-day Saint ever to gain the U.S. presidential nomination of a major party.
At the same time, the church lauded Romney for “engaging at the highest level of our democratic process, which, by its nature, demands so much of those who offer themselves for public service. We wish him and his family every success in their future endeavors.”
In 2016, the Utah-based faith issued its official congratulations to Trump the day after his stunning Election Day triumph and urged all Americans, “whatever their political persuasion,” to pray for him and his new administration.
In 2020, however, the church waited nearly six weeks after Election Day — and more than a month after major news organizations had declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner in the White House race — to release its customary congratulatory message.
So why the delay in extending the church’s official well wishes to Biden four years ago?
The church declined to say. But unlike the previous two presidential races, the loser had yet to concede. In fact, Trump tried unsuccessfully to overturn the results by making unsupported allegations of widespread election fraud.
In a General Conference sermon a month before Election Day, 2020, Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the church’s governing First Presidency, criticized those who had threatened to reject the final balloting tally.
“We peacefully accept the results of elections,” said Oaks, a former Supreme Court justice and next in line to assume leadership of the 17.2 million-member worldwide religion. “We will not participate in the violence threatened by those disappointed with the outcome. In a democratic society, we always have the opportunity and the duty to persist peacefully until the next election.”
With Harris’ concession speech Wednesday, it was clear that the Democratic candidate would be following the longtime American practice of peaceful transitions of power.
