(Photo : Instagram Account)

• VP Kamala Harris is leveraging Beyoncé's influence to rally voters in Houston for the 2024 presidential election.
• The rally, also featuring Willie Nelson, is a strategic move to mobilize Black and younger voters.
• Harris plans to highlight her campaign themes, including abortion rights, at the event.
• The rally's outcome could potentially influence the direction of the closely contested race against Trump.

In a strategic move to secure victory in the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris is banking on the star power of Beyoncé to rally voters. The Houston rally, headlined by the celebrity singer, is designed to energize voters and drive them to the polls. The event, which also features country singer Willie Nelson, is set against the backdrop of a tight race with Republican former President Donald Trump.

The rally is taking place at the 21,000-seat Shell Energy Stadium, a venue typically reserved for Houston's Major League Soccer team. The event operates on a first come, first served basis, with doors opening at 3 p.m. Central Daylight Time. Harris is scheduled to speak at 8:30 p.m. (0130 Saturday GMT). To attend, individuals must register on a Democratic Party website, which then directs them to a page offering free tickets and event details.

The choice of Beyoncé as the headline act is a calculated move. With an Instagram following of 314 million, the singer offers Harris access to a significant segment of the U.S. population, particularly Black and younger voters. These demographics are crucial for Harris, who believes she needs to mobilize them in large numbers to win the closely contested race against Trump.

Beyoncé's Influence and Harris's Campaign Themes

The rally also serves as a platform for Harris to highlight her campaign anthem, Beyoncé's song Freedom, which resonates with themes of personal emancipation. The location of the rally is also significant. Houston is Beyoncé's hometown, and Texas is a conservative state where Harris is using the platform to underscore abortion rights, a major theme of her campaign.

Texas implemented a near-total abortion ban in 2021, a first-of-its-kind law that prohibited 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 2022. Harris plans to speak about the danger to abortion rights if Trump is elected, a campaign source said, and will be joined by women who have suffered since Texas' anti-abortion regulations were passed.

The rally is not just about Harris and Beyoncé. Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred is also expected to attend, as Democrats seek to give him a boost in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz. This move underscores the broader strategy of the Democratic Party to leverage high-profile events and personalities to bolster their candidates across various races.

The Rally's Impact and the Broader Election Context

The rally is expected to draw large crowds, reminiscent of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, where an incorrect rumor that Beyoncé would attend led to a surge in attendance. The event will be broadcast live on Harris' YouTube channel, and several news networks are also expected to cover it.

The rally comes at a critical time for Harris, whose lead over Trump has all but evaporated, according to national opinion polls. However, she has gained a considerable advantage over Trump with women, who most polls and surveys show make up much of Beyoncé's audience. Harris led Trump by 49% to 36%, or 13 percentage points, among women voters in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published late in August.

The rally also comes amid a backdrop of early voting, with more than 36 million people having cast their ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. Both Trump and Harris have been focusing on issues such as marijuana legalization in an attempt to widen their coalitions. The question of which polls can be trusted has also been raised, with attention being drawn to the agencies that accurately predicted the outcomes in the swing states in 2020.