Beyoncé to appear at Harris rally in Houston, sources tell AP
HOUSTON - Beyoncé is expected to appear at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris Friday, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The rally will take place in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston. Her mom, Tina Knowles, and country icon Willie Nelson are also expected to attend.
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Beyonce's 2016 track "Freedom" serves as the Harris campaign’s anthem – the singer’s planned appearance brings a high-level of star power in the closing days of the campaign.
Last year, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Maryland after getting tickets from Beyonce herself. "Thanks for a fun date night, @Beyonce," Harris wrote on Instagram.
Beyoncé performs onstage during the "RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR" at MetLife Stadium on July 29, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood )
Harris is headed to the reliably Republican state of Texas just 10 days before Election Day in an effort to refocus her campaign against former President Donald Trump on reproductive care, which Democrats see as a make-or-break issue this year.
Harris’ Houston trip is set to feature women who have been affected by Texas' restrictive abortion laws, which took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She has campaigned in other states with restrictive abortion laws, including Georgia, among the seven most closely contested states.
Harris has centered her campaign around the idea that Trump is a threat to American freedoms, from reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the freedom to be safe from gun violence.
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Beyoncé has endorsed Democratic candidates in the past and performed at Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. Three years later, she and her husband Jay-Z performed at a pre-election concert for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Cleveland.
"Look how far we’ve come from having no voice to being on the brink of history — again," Beyoncé said at the time. "But we have to vote."
It was widely believed that Beyoncé would perform on the last night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, but that rumor turned out to be untrue.