Beyoncé brings star power to Harris rally in Texas with abortion law in spotlight | Kamala Harris

Beyoncé lent her star power to Kamala Harris at a heated rally in her native Texas on Friday, declaring that the country was on the “edge of history” as the vice president warned that the state's near-total abortion ban could become the law of the country if Donald Trump is elected.

“To every man and woman in this room and to spectators across the country: We need you,” Beyoncé told 30,000 people at the open-air Shell Energy Stadium in Houston.

With the presidential race effectively deadlocked, Harris detoured from her hectic race through the seven battleground states to appear in reliably Republican Texas, where she sought to highlight the state's abortion restrictions to voters who were still undecided or theirs cast a vote.

“Let’s be clear: If Donald Trump wins again, he will ban abortion nationwide,” Harris told the audience, her largest yet. Harris took the stage, as she has done since becoming the presumptive nominee about 100 days ago, to Beyoncé's powerful anthem “Freedom.”

Harris has focused her campaign on the issue of freedom. In the final days of the campaign, she portrayed Trump as a threat to hard-won progress by undermining access to reproductive care, seeking to roll back LGBTQ rights and targeting American democracy itself. Earlier this week, Harris agreed that Trump is a “fascist.”

Harris spoke to a boisterous crowd, thousands of whom had waited hours in the humid Houston heat to attend. Rally participants received flashing bracelets in all sorts of colors. They danced and sang while a DJ played pop ballads before the event began.

But the message Harris delivered was sobering. She listed the far-reaching impact of abortion bans like the one in Texas, which she called “ground zero for the right to reproductive freedom.”

“However, elections are important,” Harris said.

Despite the speculations, the megastar did not make an appearance. “I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said. “We are on the precipice of an incredible turning point, on the edge of history,” Beyoncé told the cheering crowd.

In the final days before the election, the Harris campaign is harnessing the star power of the party's most popular figures and prominent supporters. On Friday night, country star and Texas resident Willie Nelson sang his best-known songs, including “On the Road Again,” and actress Jessica Alba urged women to vote. Beyoncé was accompanied by her mother Tina Knowles and her former bandmate Kelly Rowland.

“We are grabbing the pen from those who are trying to write an American story that would deny women the right to make their own decisions about our bodies,” Rowland said. “Today that means I’m picking up the pen and casting my vote for Kamala Harris.”

The night before, Harris held her first campaign rally with Barack Obama. They were joined on stage in Atlanta by rocker Bruce Springsteen, who performed a three-song set and branded Trump an “American tyrant.” Harris will meet Michelle Obama in Michigan on Saturday.

Harris doesn't expect to win Texas. But Democrats here are suddenly hopeful after polls suggest an unexpectedly close Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Dallas Congressman Colin Allred, a Democrat.

Democrats face a daunting Senate map this cycle. With defeat in West Virginia all but certain and Montana slipping out of reach, their hopes of maintaining narrow control of the Senate could rest on an upset in the Lone Star State.

“Everything is bigger in Texas,” Allred said Friday evening. “But Ted Cruz is too small for Texas.”

The emotional core of the evening was the personal stories of Texas women who nearly died from pregnancy-related complications because they did not receive proper care.

Ondrea, a Texas woman appearing in a new Harris campaign, became emotional as she recounted her harrowing experience following a miscarriage at 16 weeks and the need for an emergency abortion, which she was denied under state law. A video played before her remarks showed her with a wound and scars stretching across her body from her chest to her pelvis after a six-hour operation in which doctors had to cut open her torso to save her life .

Texas residents Amanda and Josh Zurawski, who have become powerful surrogates for Harris on the campaign trail, also shared their stories. At 18 weeks pregnant, Amanda Zurawski developed complications and had to have an abortion. There was no chance the fetus would survive, but doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy until she eventually developed sepsis days later.

“I was finally close enough to death to deserve medical care in Texas,” said Amanda Zurawski.

Todd Ivey, a reproductive health specialist in Houston, spoke to the crowd surrounded by a team of doctors and medical professionals in white lab coats. He highlighted the challenges of caring for patients when doing so involves the risk of arrest. Since the Texas law went into effect, infant mortality rates in the state have increased.

“This is a health crisis,” he said. This is unacceptable and cruel.”

Among the spectators was Sara Gonzales, 32, of Splendora, Texas, who drove to the stadium straight from her morning shift at Starbucks. Gonzales said she considers herself an independent and ran for president in 2020. But the political situation has changed, Gonzales said, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Texas has passed its near-total ban on abortion.

“It’s not OK to be a woman in Texas right now,” she said. “I should have freedom over my own body.”