Vice President Kamala Harris veered away from the presidential battleground on Friday to hold an event in Texas focused almost entirely on abortion rights, with an endorsement from global superstar Beyoncé.
With the presidential campaign at a standstill, the Harris campaign is using Beyoncé’s status, especially in her hometown of Houston, to influence what could happen across the country if former President Donald J. Kennedy becomes president. As a warning, he sought to draw attention to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Mr. Trump won reelection to the White House.
The Houston rally was not only her campaign’s largest, but also the most emotional event since she became the Democratic nominee. Beyoncé gave a speech that focused on a more optimistic future, with the story set in a heartbreaking story of Texas women who suffered life-threatening health complications after being denied proper care for pregnancy complications. became the center.
Harris and many of the speakers placed the blame solely on Trump, who also appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. I brag about it often.
Trump has vowed to leave abortion laws up to the states and has said he would veto any national ban, but allies and former administration officials have said the law passed in 2016. are planning ways to restrict abortion rights beyond. Conservative states across the country.
Harris warned that if Trump is elected to another term, he will move to ban abortion nationwide, regardless of his campaign promises.
“Tonight we’re in Texas, but for those of you watching from other states, whether it’s Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California, or any other state where voters and legislators are protecting reproductive freedom. If you think you’re protected from Trump’s abortion ban because you live in a state, know this: No one is protected,” she said. “Because Donald Trump’s national ban would make abortion illegal in every state.”
The Harris campaign had hoped that the combination of dire warnings and Beyoncé’s stratospheric celebrity reach would break through the crowded and diffuse news environment and shape voters by Election Day. The aim was to create a moment that resonated with disengaged voters and Republican-leaning women, who Harris’ team believes is key to the vice president’s potential success.
Beyoncé’s appearance was notable for the pop star, who frequently supports Democratic candidates, but has rarely spoken out at length about her political beliefs. Her song “Freedom” became an anthem for the Harris campaign and was used to introduce the vice president in nearly every appearance. Her lawyer reportedly threatened to send her a cease-and-desist letter after Trump used a clip of the song in a video.
“I’m not here as a celebrity,” Beyoncé told Friday’s crowd, which the Harris campaign estimated numbered 30,000. “I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother, a mother who cares deeply about my children and the world in which all of our children live.”
She continued: “Imagine our daughters growing up, seeing what’s possible with no ceilings or limits. Imagine our grandmothers and imagine what they’re feeling right now. Just imagine.”
Other speakers include Beyoncé’s mother, Beyoncé’s longtime friend and former bandmate Kelly Rowland, Texas country music legend Willie Nelson, and Democratic challenger to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. This included Congressman Colin Allred, who is a member of Congress. Several women who have sought abortion care since the Supreme Court reversed Roe and the mother of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died from medical delays related to Georgia’s abortion ban, also spoke out. The rally was also attended by a group of obstetricians who said they can no longer practice what they deem appropriate in Texas because the state has banned most abortion procedures.
Roe v. Wade’s defeat energized a new coalition of moderate Republicans, independents and Democratic voters who have largely determined Democratic victories in the two years since the Supreme Court’s decision. Harris has made blaming Trump for ending the constitutional right to abortion a central part of her campaign, hoping to use the issue to energize voters who support her candidacy.
At a video board in an outdoor arena, Ms. Harris boasts about her role in abolishing abortion rights, in between testimonies from women who have suffered from lack of access to treatment due to strict bans. They played footage of Trump.
In an election campaign in which public opinion polls show that there is a significant gender disparity, with women supporting Ms. Harris and men supporting Mr. Trump, the vice president clearly appealed to men for abortion rights and It was like begging people to vote for their rights.
“Men across America don’t want to see their daughters, their wives, their sisters, their mothers at risk,” she says. “American men don’t want this.”
But even though abortion rights remain one of Harris’ biggest issues, some abortion rights activists and political strategists believe abortion rights will have as much political resonance in the president’s year. Some believe that it may not be possible to maintain the In battleground states, one in five voters voted to abolish the constitutional right to abortion, even though Trump appointed three of the judges who voted to overturn Roe. President Biden has been falsely accused of doing so.
The Harris campaign has used women’s personal stories as one of its most powerful political tools, highlighting the real-life impact of abortion regulations sweeping conservative states and appealing to apolitical voters. I see it as a way to spend money.
A woman named Ondrea, whose story was recently featured in a Harris campaign ad about how Texas’ abortion ban prevented her from receiving proper medical treatment after a miscarriage, learned that her baby would not survive birth. , told how she was refused an abortion.
Her voice breaks as she develops sepsis, a life-threatening pregnancy complication, faces a partially collapsed lung, hours of surgery and months of difficult recovery. I explained.
“Donald Trump’s abortion ban in Texas nearly cost me my life and left me physically and emotionally scarred,” she told the cheering crowd. “I proudly cast my vote for Kamala Harris because lives are at stake in this election.”
As the race enters its final stages, the Harris campaign is going to great lengths to make the rally feel like an event beyond politics. Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama appeared before a crowd of more than 20,000 Harris campaigners in Georgia on Thursday night, and Obama’s popular wife Michelle Obama appeared on Saturday night. She plans to rally supporters alongside Harris in Michigan. . John Legend is scheduled to perform at a rally in Philadelphia on Sunday, and the band Mumford & Sons is scheduled to perform at a Harris rally in Madison, Wisconsin, next week.
In Houston on Friday, a disc jockey who had been warming up the crowd hours before Ms. Harris and Ms. Beyoncé took the stage repeatedly called the rally “the greatest political event in history” (though not quite) and encouraged people to “first She urged people to support “black women.” That would be the case if Ms. Harris wins, but that is not the point she or her campaign have made.
City employee Demarcus Phipps, 33, said he had seen Beyoncé in concert several times but was at the event for Harris.
“I’m not interested in Trump,” he said, adding that he doesn’t mind listening to some Beyoncé songs. “Maybe it’s ‘freedom’.”
“This is a once in a lifetime event,” said his cousin Courtney Jones, 36. “I wanted to be a part of that.”
Both she and Phipps said they had already voted early for Harris. One of their nieces, Asia Phipps, 20, also voted in a presidential election for the first time.
“I felt special,” she said. When asked whether she was there for Ms. Harris or Beyoncé, she smiled. “both!”
Erica L. Green contributed reporting.
