HOUSTON, TX — Kamala Harris had two goals when she arrived in Texas Friday for a mega-rally with Beyoncé: Convince people who don’t live in the state to vote for her, and convince people who do live in the state to vote for someone else.
Harris knows she’s not going to win Texas in just over a week, and she knows how valuable her last days on the trail are. But her campaign saw a unique opportunity to use Texas as the centerpiece for her argument about abortion access while lifting up a Democrat who people close to her say has a real shot at unseating Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Though we are in Texas tonight, for anyone watching from another state, if you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan, or Pennsylvania, or Nevada, or New York, or California, or any state where voters or legislators have protected reproductive freedom, please know: No one is protected. Because a Donald Trump national ban will outlaw abortion in every single state,” Harris said at the Shell Energy Stadium in Houston to a crowd of 30,000 people, per the campaign, her largest crowd yet.
Just 11 days ahead of the November election, Friday’s Texas rally is likely to be one of the last times Harris campaigns outside a battleground state. But the campaign has wagered that Harris wading into unfriendly territory, plus Beyoncé, would be enough to send her message into the political stratosphere.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician,” Beyoncé said before introducing Harris. “I’m here as a mother, a mother who cares, deeply, about the world my children and all of our children live in. A world where we have the freedom to control our bodies. A world where we’re not divided.”
The campaign was looking to do a sweeping speech on abortion, said a campaign official, and decided on Texas about 10 days ago — citing it as “ground zero for abortion bans.” The goal, campaign aides have argued in recent days, is not to “win” Texas, a state that last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate when Jimmy Carter was running and has thwarted Democrats looking to flip a Senate seat in repeated elections. But it is to draw attention to the campaign’s signature issue that energizes the Democratic base, even if her closing argument has been centered on the economy and Republican-friendly warnings about Trump’s conduct.
That Rep. Colin Allred is locked in a tight Senate race that if successful could blunt a Republican majority, was an added bonus, said the official.
“They think this can happen” for Allred, said one Democratic operative close to the campaign. Democrats believe Allred is close to tied with Cruz, but that he needs to boost his turnout from Black voters based on early voting data.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was involved in putting Friday’s event together, as was Beyoncé’s mom, Tina Knowles, said the operative. Knowles took part in a Zoom call in support of Harris last month.
“Here’s what we’re going to do Texas,” Allred told the crowd. “In 10 days, we’re going to beat Ted Cruz. In 10 days, we’re going to restore Roe v. Wade. … We’re going to make sure Kamala Harris is elected as the next president of the United States.”
Denisse, a young Houston voter who asked to only be identified by her first name, told NOTUS that it’s “big” for Harris — and Beyoncé — to come to Houston just 11 days before the general election.
“The small, little counties are the ones that really drown us with their red power,” Denisse said. “So for her to come here, it’s necessary … and her coming to Texas is her showing that, ‘Hey, I know that there’s a big divide in the state, but I’m here to make sure that we come together as one to fight for one common enemy, which is Donald Trump.’”
Harris, who elevated her political profile as vice president with her role pushing against abortion bans, was in comfortable territory in Texas, a state she’s called “very important” to the campaign for abortion access. Texas, in 2021, became the first state to successfully ban abortion before Roe v. Wade was overturned when it enacted a first-of-its-kind lawsuit-enforced six-week ban. The state has implemented multiple bans in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
And she momentarily trained her eye on men, as the campaign has tried to draw them into the issue by connecting it with their loved ones.
“Men across America do not want to see their daughters and wives and sisters and mothers put at risk because their rights have been taken,” she said.
Abortion rights is a top issue for Democratic voters this election cycle, and Democratic campaigns hope it will drive major turnout in November.
“Being able to show versus tell is very important for the very few Americans who are still undecided,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, the group formerly known as NARAL, at the rally. “They may not understand the ramifications of what Donald Trump has done, and they may not believe what Donald Trump will do. And this is our chance to break through in the most visceral way by [being] right here in Texas, and no one knows the horrors of Donald Trump’s abortion bans more than Texas.”
The Harris campaign has been following the Biden campaign’s playbook on abortion messaging: Focus on stories of women who were denied emergency abortions for pregnancies they desperately wanted. The campaign has highlighted several stories, including those of of Amber Thurman, who died in Georgia after being denied an abortion, and Amanda Zurawski, who was forced to travel out of Texas to receive a medically necessary abortion.
Zurawski spoke at the Houston rally with her husband, Josh Zurawski.
“What Josh and I went through could be the reality facing Americans and families in this country if [Trump] gets back into power,” Zurawski said.
Twelve practicing OB-GYNs also took the stage at the rally, with one saying that abortion bans “are designed to handcuff me, literally.”
“As a physician, I cannot describe the anguish of not being able to help my patients and the fear of spending the rest of my life behind bars,” Todd Ivey, one of the doctors, said. “There is no room for Donald Trump in my exam room, and that’s why I’m proud to be supporting Kamala Harris.”
Ondrea Cummings, who was featured in a Harris ad released this week, took the stage and shared her story for the first time. She said she was denied an abortion after her doctors said her child would not survive and that she ended up getting a six-hour emergency surgery and remained in the hospital for weeks with sepsis and a serious wound.
“I never thought I would have this type of personal experience. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” she said in Texas. “The same people who create these laws should ask themselves, what if it was their loved ones. For all the mothers, daughters, granddaughters: There has to be change.”
Harris picked up on that note, begging voters to reject the temptation to stay home on Election Day.
“Is it worth it? Does it make a difference? Yes, it does. You are making a difference, and momentum is on our side.” Harris said.
—
Oriana González and Jasmine Wright are a reporters at NOTUS.