Kamala Harris and Colin Allred highlight abortion, voting in 11th-hour campaign event featuring Beyoncé

HOUSTON (CN) — Vice President Kamala Harris drew a massive crowd at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas on Friday, just 11 days before Election Day, with the help of Houston’s own Beyoncé Knowles at the top of her long guest list.

The Harris campaign centered the event around their abortion policy, a key mobilizing issue for the Democratic ticket. Signs around the venue called the crowd to “Vote for Reproductive Freedom” and “Trust Women.”

Harris pressed the crowd to remember Trump’s abortion policy, while also taking jabs at the former president.

“On the one hand, Trump won’t let anyone see his medical records; I gave out mine! And on the other, they want to get your hands on your medical records. Simply put, they are out of their minds!” she said.

The vice president’s speech centered in equal parts on abortion policy and on calling Texans to vote.

“We’ve got 11 days to see this through, and we will win,” she told the cheering crowd. “And we will win because we know and understand what is at stake. An election that will decide the future of America, including the freedom of every woman to make decisions about her body and her reproductive freedom. Fighting for are future and not letting some people take us back!”

“Freedom” has been a major element of Harris’ campaign which has frequently been soundtracked by Beyoncé’s song of the same name and the music superstar finally joined the the vice president on stage Friday, echoing her concern for abortion rights.

Joined by her mother Tina Knowles and fellow Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé told the crowd, “We are at the precipice of an incredible shift, of history. I’m not here as a celebrity or a politician. I’m here as a mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in. A world where we all have the freedom to control our bodies. A world where we are not divided.”

The pop star concluded her speech with a call to action.

“To all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country, we need you. Your voice has power and magnitude. Your vote is one of the most valuable tools, and we need you. Your freedom is your God-given right, your human right,” she said.

Beyoncé wasn’t the only celebrity who threw their lot in with Harris on Friday — the event also featured a performance by country music legend Willie Nelson and actress Jessica Alba focused on the Harris campaign’s business policies in an introductory speech.

Despite the star-studded entreaties, much of the efforts at the event were aimed not just at reproductive rights and drumming up support for Harris, but at garnering support for Colin Allred, the Democratic congressman from Dallas who is seeking to unseat the incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz in an incredibly tight race.

As of Oct. 24, the rolling average of polls collected by FiveThirtyEight put Cruz just 3.4 points above Allred among likely voters. But the most recent poll from Emerson College and The Hill, conducted from Oct.19-21 and released on Wednesday, has Cruz ahead by just over one point in the same demographic.

“In 10 days, we’re gonna beat Ted Cruz. And when we do, we’re gonna make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again,” the Dallas congressman told the crowd.

Allred hammered home his efforts for bipartisanship early in the speech. But he spent much of his time castigating Ted Cruz over his Senate record, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, his recent debate performance and his infamous flight from Texas during the 2021 winter freeze.

“Because when 30 million Texans were relying on him, when the lights went out [in February 2021’s winter storm], he went to Cancun,” Allred said.

Harris’ own speech also featured repeated references to Cruz’s attempts to pass a national abortion ban.

With the polls growing closer, the Democratic party has thrown its weight in full behind Allred, who had previously kept his distance from President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris.

The campaign also featured video interviews with the family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died from complications due to an abortion. According to reporting by ProPublica in June, Georgia law passed after the overturning of Roe v. Wade made the routine procedure that could have saved Thurman’s life a felony for doctors to perform.

Ondrea Cummings, a San Antonio resident, spoke publicly for the first time, both in a video and on stage, about her own experience with pregnancy complications at 16 weeks, for which she could not get proper care due to Texas abortion law.

Amanda Zurawski — an Austin woman who nearly died in 2022 from complications from an ectopic pregnancy at 18 weeks — spoke about having to wait long enough to qualify for a narrow exception to Texas’s abortion ban. Zurawski led a challenge to the state ban’s narrow exceptions, which the Texas Supreme Court unanimously denied in May 2024.

Dr. Todd Ivey, an OBGYN from Texas, spoke while joined with a group of fellow doctors about the effect of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on physicians.

“Because of Donald Trump, I could be thrown in prison for life for providing reproductive care,” Ivey told the crowd. Ivey tied Texas’s worsening maternal mortality to the state’s abortion laws.

The campaign did not officially report attendance prior to the rally, but the Shell Energy Stadium has a max capacity of 20,656, and the lines outside the venue easily exceeded that number hours before the event. Fans and voters filled nearly every seat and much of the field’s standing room.