By Trevor Hunnicutt, Gabriella Borter and Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took a detour from barnstorming the battleground states that will decide November’s election with Friday stops in Texas, a conservative state that was the first to implement a near-total abortion ban.
Texas hasn’t backed a Democratic president since 1976, and Republican Trump is almost certain to win the state’s 40 electoral college votes.
But Democrats are betting it will provide a powerful backdrop for Vice President Harris to talk about abortion rights in the final days before the Nov. 5 election.
Superstar singer Beyonce, who was born in Houston, fired up the crowd by introducing Harris, who came on stage to a recording of Beyonce’s song “Freedom,” which has made her campaign anthem. She did not sing however.
Harris spoke about the danger former President Trump and Republicans could present to abortion rights across the country if he’s elected, a campaign source said, and be joined by women who have suffered after Texas’ anti-abortion regulations were passed and their family members.
“Texas, what is happening across this state and our country is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of it,” Harris said.
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Texas implemented a first-of-its kind law in September 2021 that banned abortion after six weeks and allowed anyone to sue abortion patients in violation and those who assisted them.
The U.S. Supreme Court, with a conservative majority formed by Trump’s judicial appointments, allowed the law to stand, and then gutted federal abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
In between personal stories of abortion-related tragedy, and before Beyonce took the stage, the rally took on the air of a dance party, with people swaying and singing along to a DJ.
While Beyonce appealed to a younger crowd, 91-year-old Willie Nelson showed earlier in the event that he still has cachet in his native Texas.
“Are we ready to say Madam President?” Nelson asked the crowd before launching into “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” to which the audience sang along.
He closed with “On the Road Again”
Trump was also campaigning in Texas on Friday, making a stop in Austin to record an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a popular podcaster with tens of millions of social media followers, most of them men.
After a three-hour interview with Rogan in Texas, Trump arrived late to a rally in battleground state Michigan.
“We’ve got a war going and she’s out partying,” Trump said Friday night, a reference to Israel’s attacks on Iran.
In his interview with Rogan, Trump again suggested he favored eliminating income tax and replacing the lost revenue with tariffs.
“Did you just float out the idea of getting rid of income taxes and replacing it with tariffs? Are we serious about that,” Rogan asked.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?” Trump replied.
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Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s program about a possible appearance, but scheduling did not line up, spokesperson Ian Sams said on MSNBC on Thursday.
Trump has lost ground with women voters since Harris became the Democratic candidate, polls show, although the two are in a tight race in the battleground states.
Harris led Trump by 49% to 36%, or 13 percentage points, among women voters in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published late in August, compared to her 9-point lead in polls conducted in July.
Trump has taken credit for appointing the justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
Since winning the Republican primary earlier this year however, he has sought the support of moderate and independent voters, saying he would not support a national ban on abortions and that individual states should be free to restrict abortion as they choose.
He called for exceptions on any ban to include incidents of rape and incest or to protect the health of the mother. However, Trump said in August he would vote against an amendment in his home state of Florida to protect abortion rights that would lift a six week abortion ban, before many women know they are pregnant.
The majority of Americans disagreed with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe, which fueled a wave of Democratic wins in the 2022 midterm elections and left Republicans scrambling to find a winning message on the issue.
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Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred also attended Harris’ rally, as Democrats sought to give him a boost in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Harris led the Biden administration’s reproductive rights initiatives and has made the issue a cornerstone of her presidential campaign.
Democrats have highlighted personal stories to show the impact of abortion being almost entirely banned in 16 states.
Ahead of the Houston trip, her campaign released an ad featuring a Texas woman who was denied an emergency abortion when her water broke at 16 weeks in 2022 and who then almost died of sepsis.
An analysis by JAMA Pediatrics, a medical journal, found that Texas saw a larger increase in infant mortality than the rest of the U.S. after enforcing the abortion ban, and early reports indicate that Texas has also seen a significant increase in maternal deaths.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Gabriella Borter and Georgina McCartney; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons, Lincoln Feast and Shri Navaratnam.)
