“I am not here as a celebrity, I am not here as a politician. I am here as a mother,” declared Beyoncé at an event in Houston for the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris held on Friday night. “A mother who deeply cares about the world my children and all our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we are not divided,” emphasized the famous singer.
"Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what is possible without ceilings, without limits," she continued. "We must vote, and we need you."
At the end, Beyoncé, accompanied on stage by her bandmate Kelly Rowland from Destiny's Child, introduced Harris as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, loud, Texas welcome to the next President of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris."
Why did Beyoncé decide to support Kamala Harris?
Unlike in 2016, when she sang at a rally for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in Cleveland, this time Beyoncé did not perform any of her famous music hits.
Houston is Beyoncé's hometown. Harris' presidential campaign team has taken the song "Freedom" —from Beyoncé's iconic 2016 album "Lemonade"—to be their anthem.
Harris used the song for the first time in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for the presidency.
The melody "Freedom" features two field recordings by John and Alan Lomax, which document improvised religious music from the era of racial segregation in black churches in the southern United States, and work songs of black prisoners from 1959 and 1948, respectively. It also features the participation of Kendrick Lamar, Pulitzer Prize winner.
Although it is unlikely for Harris to win in Texas, a state that has voted for Republican candidates since 1980, the Houston rally highlighted the dangerous medical consequences of the strict abortion ban in the state, and directly blamed former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, for it.
Since abortion was restricted in Texas, the rate of newborn deaths in the state has increased, more babies have died from congenital defects, and maternal mortality has risen.