Vice President Kamala Harris, with her future in public life up in the air and President-elect Donald Trump promising to soon dismantle much of the work she and President Joe Biden accomplished, pleaded with a crowd of mostly young people Tuesday in Prince George’s County to “stay in the fight.”

In her first extended remarks since her concession speech, Harris spoke positively about the future while vowing to engage in the same kind of public service and advocacy she was asking of others.

“Many people have come up to me, telling me they feel tired, maybe even resigned. Folks who have said to me that they’re not sure whether they have the strength, much less the desire, to stay and fight,” Harris said to a few hundred people at Prince George’s Community College. “But let me be very clear: No one can walk away.”

Harris, 60, gave no specific details about her plans after she leaves office in five weeks. A former prosecutor and senator, who was also California’s attorney general, she is reportedly considering running for governor in her home state in 2026.

“Get some rest over the holidays. Spend time with the people you love,” she said. “I challenge you to come back ready, ready to chart our path to the future — chin up, shoulders back, forever impatient for change.”

The speech represented a return to Maryland, which Harris won easily against Trump and did not campaign in at any point during her abbreviated run after Biden dropped out in July.

She last appeared in the largely Democratic state in June for a pair of speeches — one to boost Democrat Angela Alsobrooks’ campaign for U.S. Senate and talk about gun violence prevention, and another on the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Alsobrooks has also kept a low profile since the election but appeared at the event Tuesday — in her home county where she resigned as its top elected leader this month — to support Harris, her longtime friend and mentor.

Alsobrooks spoke broadly about her “profound sense of optimism” in young leaders in the face of challenges and her close relationship with the outgoing vice president even during the heat of this year’s campaigns.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’d get a text message or a call saying, ‘You keep going. You keep fighting. You keep working. You can do this,’ ” said Alsobrooks, who beat Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan in the election and will enter the Senate on Jan. 3.

Though Maryland was one of Harris’ best-performing states — a Democratic stronghold that hasn’t voted for a Republican in more than three decades — she also lost some ground compared to Biden four years ago.

She secured more than 30,000 fewer votes in Prince George’s County and neighboring Montgomery County, which together are home to 40% of all Democratic voters in the state, than Biden. Trump gained a few thousand votes in those and other areas while winning just 34% of the statewide vote to Harris’ 62.6%.

Trump’s improvements on the margins were mirrored nationally as he performed better with most types of voters. When he returns to the White House on Jan. 20, he will do so with a Republican-controlled Congress and plans to immediately tackle a wide range of issues — including limiting illegal immigration, tax cuts and tariffs on foreign goods.

Gov. Wes Moore alluded only briefly to the potential challenges ahead for Maryland in a speech at the event with Harris. The governor traveled thousands of miles back and forth between swing states to campaign for Harris.

Since the election, he’s said his administration will aim to work with Trump and push back when needed. Much is on the line for the state, including billions of dollars in federal funding and roughly 160,000 federal jobs. Moore’s preparations have included contracting with a major consulting firm to analyze the potential impact.

His remarks before Harris, however, focused largely on the day’s theme of encouraging more young people to engage in public service — a familiar message and priority since his own election.

“At a time when everything feels very uncertain, you give us certainty,” Moore told the group. “At a time when everything feels dark, you give us light. At a time when everything feels a little bit shaky, you provide stability.”

Among the crowd Tuesday were participants in Moore’s flagship service year program, a yearlong paid jobs initiative mostly for recent high school graduates. More than 600 are working for nonprofits, for-profit companies or government entities in the second year of the program.

Cheering for Harris, Moore and others in the crowd Tuesday, many wore matching red service year shirts or other black shirts reading “Maryland Tough, Maryland Serves,” that Moore’s team introduced in a nod to the “Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong” merchandise they began wearing in the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March.

Students and other invited guests joined the service members in blasts of applause for Harris.

In one moment of levity, murmurs among the crowd erupted in laughter and applause when Harris gave a nod to one of her own viral moments during the campaign.

“I ask you to remember the context in which you exist,” she said, pausing before breaking out into a wide smile and nodding as attendees recognized a favorite Harris speech line that became something of a meme. “Yeah, I did that.”

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Janesch at sjanesch @baltsun.com, 443-790-1734 and on X as @samjanesch.