BEYONCÉ TOLD A packed stadium in Texas that it was time for America to “sing a new song” and elect Kamala Harris as US president.
“For all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country, we need you,” the Grammy-winning singer told the campaign rally in her hometown of Houston.
Taking the stage with her Destiny’s Child co-star Kelly Rowland, she told the cheering crowd she was not 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.”
While the superstar did not perform any of her hits, her presence brought even more attention to Harris’s rally, which focused on abortion restrictions in Republican-led states.
Texas is not one of the handful of battlegrounds that are expected to decide the presidential election, or where the Democrat and her rival would normally be campaigning in the home stretch.
But Harris is banking on her star-studded show – which also featured 91-year-old country legend Willie Nelson – to bring abortion to the forefront of voters’ minds in the final days of campaigning.
Taking to the stage, the US Vice President told the crowd that Republican candidate Donald Trump had erased half a century of hard-fought progress when he appointed the US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade and sparked 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.”
Harris listed the effects she sees from various bans, such as “women having fewer options, fewer medical students choosing to specialise in women’s health”.
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.
With the presidential election in a dead heat, Harris is banking on abortion rights as a major driver for voters – including for Republican women.
Trump has been inconsistent in his message to voters on abortion and reproductive rights, although he has said he would 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.
Trump was also in Texas on Friday, where he predicted he would break records for the number of people deported from the United States if he wins the election.
Trump was in Austin, taping a three-hour interview with “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the United States’ most popular podcast.
The discussion veered around various topics, including UFOs and secret files on the assassination of president John F Kennedy, but rarely got into policy details and wholly avoided the issue of abortion, according to a video of the chat released Friday evening.
Rogan did not say he was backing Trump, and even expressed hope that Harris would also visit.
The former president however prodded the comedian to follow in billionaire Elon Musk’s steps and publicly endorse him.
“You cannot be voting for Kamala. Kamala. You’re not a Kamala person,” Trump said.
Trump’s follow-on rally, in battleground Michigan, was delayed for several hours over the taping, with many attendees departing before he even showed up.
Harris and Trump locked horns earlier Friday over accusations that the Republican ex-president has been running as a “fascist.”
The two camps traded barbs over claims by Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff John Kelly, echoed by Harris, that Trump is a “fascist” who cannot be trusted with power again.
Republican leaders in Congress attacked her over that characterisation, in a statement revealing they had been briefed on “ongoing and persistent” threats to Trump, and accused Harris of encouraging “another would-be assassin” after he survived an attempt on his life in July.
Half the country agrees with Harris that Trump is a fascist, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll of registered voters, and she hit back at an impromptu news conference.
“The truth is that some of the people closest to Donald Trump, when he was president… have been very clear about the danger and the threat that (he) poses to America, and the fact that he is unfit to serve,” Harris said.
“The American people deserve to hear that, and know about that, so they can make a decision.”
Trump described the US as a “garbage can for the world” for a second time this week while giving remarks in Austin – the latest in a string of inflammatory comments on immigration.
Both candidates have sought to broaden their support by sidestepping newspapers and the big TV networks in favor of podcasts and YouTube shows consumed by uncommitted young voters who could make the difference.
November’s presidential election will be the first held after a 2022 US Supreme Court ruling overturned nationwide protection of abortion.
With reporting from Press Association
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