Harris unleashes the star power of Beyoncé at raucous Houston rally

HOUSTON, Texas — Kamala Harris is trying to exit this presidential race the same way she entered it: with a bang.

At a rally Friday in Houston in front of 30,000 people – the biggest crowd of her campaign — the vice president sought to unleash the energy of her first days as a candidate for president.

There was a DJ who kept the crowd on their feet singing and doing the wave for hours. A performance by music legend Willie Nelson. And glowing wrist bracelets distributed to an energetic crowd that included people who waited more than five hours to enter the stadium.

And, amid deafening cheers and applause, arguably the most famous woman in the world introduced Harris to the stage: Beyoncé.

“Is it possible not to feel the energy in this room,” Beyoncé said before quickly switching to a serious tone.

“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician, I’m here as a mother,” she said. “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.”

The star-studded event reflected an effort to recapture the energy that characterized the first days of her campaign, when the enthusiasm that accompanied her rapid ascent to the top of the ticket took away some of the media oxygen surrounding her opponent, Donald Trump.

The Houston event – which also served the dual purpose of helping to lift Democrats more broadly, including the Senate campaign of Rep. Colin Allred in his race against Sen. Ted Cruz – wasn’t the campaign’s only celebrity event in recent days. Harris has been joined on the trail by Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama.

And they’ve announced future events with former First Lady Michelle Obama, comedian George Lopez, and future performances from Maná and Los Tigres Del Norte.

It’s not an unusual strategy for a campaign at this stage.

“Over less than 100 days, Harris has done everything she’s needed to, captured momentum and enthusiasm, and even made key issues like the economy competitive again,” said Jim Messina, the campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection. “Now, in these last two weeks, it’s all about pulling out every stop. That’s why she’s in Texas with Beyoncé—it’s a reminder of what’s at stake and a push to keep the energy up as we head to the finish line.”

Harris, in her speech, sought to emphasize the stakes with a dire warning amid the raucous cheers.

“We are fighting for freedom,” the vice president said. “We know this will be a tight race until the very end.”

The celebrity strategy does have its detractors. One senior Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to speak openly about the campaign, said the party can lose focus with glitzy events.

“Watching Bruce stand on stage with Obama just reminds me of Hillary Clinton 2016,” the strategist said. “These moments will always continue to be viral on the Internet, but I don’t know if it translates into any sort of urgency in getting out to the actual polls.”

Still, enthusiasm was clearly present at the Houston rally. Brandon Tristan, a lifelong Texan, said he’d never seen excitement at a rally in his home state for a Democrat.

“I’ve never seen 30,000 people here for a Democrat here,” he said. “Lots of energy.”

After the superstars hit the stage, the vice president directed her ire right at Trump and the state of abortion rights in Texas, which has imposed some of the strictest regulations on the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Harris called for voters in the stadium and at home to mobilize around the issue, laying the blame for the restrictions directly at Trump’s feet.

“You are ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom,” she said. “One in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban.”

The vice president warned that Trump would institute a national abortion ban and would seek to restrict contraception and IVF, though the former president has denied he intends to do so.

“Please,” she said, “know no one is protected if there is a Trump national abortion ban.”