WASHINGTON _ Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told House Democrats on Monday she was sorry she could not deliver the election but encouraged new members to press on in a fight for unity.
Clinton, joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, told members on a conference call that she was grateful she won the popular vote and thanked members in advance for the fights that lay ahead. President-elect Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and billionaire businessman who has never before held elective office, pulled in enough electoral votes to win the election.
But the former secretary of state, who in 2008 lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, also acknowledged disappointment.
"No one is sorrier than me," Clinton told members. "Heartbreaks don't heal overnight and this one won't."
Clinton said members should not be "discouraged or divided" by the outcome of her political battle with Trump.
"The people we all fought for in this election need champions more than ever," Clinton said. "Countless Americans will be relying on Democrats in Congress to be their voice."
Clinton also thanked Pelosi, D-Calif., for her work on the campaign.
Pelosi, who spent election night in Washington while Clinton's campaign party was in New York, praised the former senator from New York as "one of the greatest leaders in our country's history _ president or not."
"Our hearts are broken but our determination is deepened," Pelosi said.
House Democrats are reinventing the future of their party after sweeping loses in the House, Senate and for the White House.
They also lost key battleground states for the presidency and largely blame that on not being able to connect with disenchanted voters who clung to Trump's campaign.
The call with Clinton came shortly after Rep. Keith Ellison, a progressive Minnesota Democrat who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders' primary bid, announced he would seek the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.
