WASHINGTON — Once seen as a potential savior of the Democratic Party after Joe Biden’s deadlocked re-election campaign, Kamala Harris and her supporters are expecting deep rejection from American voters in this presidential election. year.

In every battleground state, she trails Donald Trump, a man she has described as an existential danger to the country’s core institutions. And Trump appears poised to win the popular vote for the first time in his three White House campaigns — even after two impeachments, felony convictions and an attempt to overturn his previous election defeat.

Harris has yet to admit defeat. She will deliver a concession speech Wednesday at 4 p.m., her office said. She will speak at Howard University, her alma mater in Washington, where her supporters attended homecomings Tuesday night before being sent home after midnight as Trump made progress in battleground states. His campaign has not revealed any plans to speak to Trump.

The outcome is particularly bitter for Harris because, as sitting vice president, she is expected to oversee the congressional certification ceremony of the election.

It’s the same role Mike Pence played four years ago, when Trump ordered his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol. Although critics said the violent insurrection crystallized Trump’s threat to American democracy, it ultimately did not deter voters from re-electing him.

Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden, who was already struggling to convince voters he could become president until he was 86, stumbled badly during his June 27 debate with Trump.

He withdrew from the race on July 21 and endorsed his running mate, who quickly unified the Democratic Party around his candidacy.

Harris faced severe difficulties from the start. She inherited Biden’s political functioning just 107 days before the end of the election, and she faced an agitated electorate hungry for change.

Although Harris proposed “a new way forward,” she struggled to meaningfully differentiate herself from the unpopular sitting president. She also had little time to introduce herself to skeptical voters, who have never voted for her in a presidential primary.

Democrats now face the prospect of picking up the pieces during a second Trump presidency, and it’s unclear what role Harris will play in her party’s future.