Appearing with friends and in a state that is something of a safe space, Vice President Kamala Harris again urged her supporters to continue to fight and to hold onto hope ahead of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Harris, who lost the presidential election to Trump, spoke Tuesday at the Prince George’s Community College to a crowd of about 250 mostly young people. Reminiscent of her November concession speech at nearby Howard University, her alma mater, Harris likened the current moment to others in the nation’s history.

“The movements for civil rights, women’s rights, worker’s rights, the United States of America itself, would never have come to be if people had given up their cause after a court case or a battle or an election did not go their way,” the vice president said.

As many Democrats bounce between horror and apathy over the country’s future under Trump, Harris acknowledged the seriousness of the moment without ever mentioning him by name.

“We must stay in the fight,” Harris said, “because that is the responsibility, in my opinion, that comes with the privilege of being an American. And that responsibility has always then fueled the American experiment.”

Since the election, Harris said she’s received “tens of thousand of letters” from people across the spectrums of political ideology, age and race and that many share a common theme of resolve for what is ahead.

She spoke of the bedrock principles that America was founded on, how everyone was created equally and possessed certain fundamental rights. It was implied these principles are under threat — “the promise of America itself is a powerful yet fragile idea,” Harris said.

While many of the Trump administration’s policy proposals continue to spark fear in Marylanders — mass deportations, a drastic reduction of the federal workforce, economy-contracting tariffs — none were mentioned head on. Tuesday’s remarks, whether from Harris or Gov. Wes Moore or Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks, were focused on the promise of young people.

Harris considers both Moore and Alsobrooks friends and has known Alsobrooks, who was most recently Prince George’s County executive, for many years. Harris made several stops in Maryland during this year’s election cycle despite its position as a safe blue state.

The theme of the event was to promote youth leadership, with Moore and Alsobrooks speaking kindly to the crowd about their future accomplishments. Moore, who said he thanks God for young leaders, counts the establishment of a state public service program as one of his biggest achievements since taking office in 2023.

“Do not ever forget your power,” Moore told the crowd. “Do not ever forget the fact that you are the ones who are going to lead us to a better future, and you’re going to do it through service.”

The trio in many ways are representative of how change can happen. All three are firsts of some sort — Moore as the state’s first Black governor, Alsobrooks as Maryland’s first Black U.S. senator and Harris as the nation’s first woman elected vice president — and all are relatively young in the universe of Democratic politics. Harris, at 60, is the oldest of the three.

Alsobrooks called Harris the “consummate reminder” of what is possible.

“She has taught you by example that you’re never too young to do something and that because other’s haven’t done it, there’s no excuse as to why you cannot,” Alsobrooks said of Harris.