Even though Texas is not a battleground state both candidates fought hard on Friday night to win more Texas votes.
Kamala Harris had all the attention when she came onstage in a sold out Houston stadium with famous pop singer Beyonce.
Beyonce was introduced by Kelly Rowland and made her endorsement for Kamala Harris in a rousing speech urging the crowd to get out and vote.
Beyoncé told the packed stadium that it was time for America to elect Kamala Harris president, urging voters to “sing a new song,” before the vice president delivered a message to battleground voters all the way from reliably Republican Texas — that Donald Trump was dead set on eroding women’s rights.
“For all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country, we need you,” Beyoncé said.
The music megastar, who was joined by her mother, Tina Knowles, and her former bandmate Kelly Rowland, told the cheering crowd she wasn’t at the rally as a celebrity, or as a politician.
“I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said, talking about how her children would see “the sacrifices made so we can witness the strength of a woman … reimagining what leadership is.”
Harris came out to huge cheers. She told the crowd that Trump had erased half a century of hard-fought progress when he appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and touched off a healthcare crisis.
“For anyone watching from another state, if you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California, or any state where voters or legislators have protected reproductive freedom, please know: No one is protected,” she said. “Because a Donald Trump national ban will outlaw abortion in every single state.”
“All that to say, elections matter,” she said.
Harris listed off downstream effects she sees from various bans, such as “women having fewer options, fewer medical students choosing to specialize in women’s health.”
Her campaign said it was her largest rally to date; the crowd waited for hours, wearing flashing red, white and blue LED bracelets as “trust women” and “freedom” flashed on big screens between acts, as speakers highlighted the medical fallout from abortion restrictions.
She was joined at the rally by women who have nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they were unable to get proper medical care, including women who never intended to end their pregnancies.
Some of them have already been out campaigning for Harris and others have told their harrowing tales in campaign ads that seek to show how the issue has ballooned into something far bigger than the right to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Since abortion was restricted in Texas, the state’s infant death rate has increased, more babies have died of birth defects and maternal mortality has risen.
With the presidential election in a dead heat, Harris is banking on abortion rights as a major driver for voters — including for Republican women, particularly since Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right.
Trump has been inconsistent in his message to voters on abortion and reproductive rights, though he’s said he’d veto a national abortion ban. He has repeatedly shifted his stance and offered vague, contradictory and at times nonsensical answers to questions on an issue that has become a major vulnerability for Republicans in this year’s election.
Thousands excitedly lined up in anticipation for the vice president at her one and only campaign stop in the nation’s fourth largest city.
At the same time – already after 11 pm Eastern time – Donald Trump hold a massive rally in Michigan. Trump was more than four hours late – leading some of his supporters to fade away exhausted.
Trump focused in his one-hour-long speech mostly on border and immigration and the problems of inflation – in complete contrast to Harris in Texas, who didn’t mention immigration and inflation at all.
