This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.
With Beyoncé as her warm-up act, Kamala Harris packed a Houston stadium Friday night with a late-campaign swing through a state where a win for her is unlikely, and wasn’t the point. From deep in Texas, the Vice President’s goal was for the rest of the country to hear her message: the abortion ban in Texas could become the national standard if Donald Trump is given a second term in the White House.
“Freedom is not to be given. It is not to be bestowed. It is ours by right and we are prepared to fight for it because we understand the stakes,” Harris told a crowd that brimmed with the kind of enthusiasm typically reserved for mega-events like a World Series or, well, a Beyoncé tour. “Texas, you are ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom.”
The Harris campaign said the 30,000 people in attendance made it their largest rally to date. The night’s biggest draw, of course, was Beyonce Knowles-Carter, the unparalleled artist who hails from Houston. Though she didn’t perform, Beyonce and her former Destiny’s Child co-headliner, Kelly Rowland, introduced the Vice President. And legend Willie Nelson, billed simply as “Texas voter,” also performed a two-song set earlier in the evening. Tina Knowles, Beyoncé’s mother, also made the case for a Harris presidency.
But it was Queen Bey who best understood the assignment. One of the most popular musicians on the planet, her political chops are less often used than other stars like Taylor Swift, who has also endorsed Harris. While Beyoncé has a clear history of backing Democratic candidates, her brand is one that extends beyond traditional corners, and her remarks landed firmly in that sweet zone.
“We are at the precipice of an incredible shift, the brink of history,” Beyoncé told the packed Shell Energy Stadium in her introduction of Harris. “I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother. 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. A world where we’re not divided.”
Along with creating the kind of buzzy event that drew national attention, the event was also intended to boost Democrat Colin Allred, who spoke earlier at the rally and is vying to unseat Ted Cruz in a surprisingly competitive Senate race.
As Democrats face a particularly hazardous Senate map, the Harris/Beyoncé event was part of a broader effort by Democrats to boost down-ballot races as something of a last-minute insurance policy should Harris prevail in her bid for the White House. If Republicans reclaim the Senate with a net swing of two seats, they could effectively veto Harris’ agenda. (The same can be said of the House, where Republicans are trying to hold onto a narrow but unruly majority.) Put plainly, the reasoning behind a visit to GOP-friendly Texas so close to Election Day were multiple, and Harris bet big that the resonance of the state’s near-total abortion ban could trigger action both for others within the state, and for her in must-win swing states.
“Women have died because of Trump abortion bans,” Harris said. “In just four years as President, Donald Trump was able to erase half a century of hard-fought progress for women. Now he wants to go even further. … If Trump wins again, he will ban abortion nationwide.”
Trump has said he is proud of appointing three justices that helped the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and ended a half-century of federal abortion protections. The former President has maintained he prefers states themselves set the standards on their own, a reality that has created an inconsistent environment for those seeking abortions and a vastly uneven quilt of policies and practices.
Harris clearly had in mind the audience watching in other states as she hit the case hard that this is about so much more than what happens in Texas.
“Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in this presidential election and in 10 states around the country, including Arizona, Florida, and Nevada,” she said. “With the work of everyone here, freedom will win.”
Republicans need to net just two Senate seats to have a majority to check a potential Harris era. If Trump wins, Vice President J.D. Vance would be the tie-breaking vote in a 50-50 Senate if the GOP managed to net just one seat, and that’s almost a given as Sen. Joe Manchin decided not to run again in West Virginia; Democrats all but abandoned that contest in short order.
So Harris’ alarmism about the prospect of Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress is not without grounding. Trump has already signaled his return to power would not necessarily be marred by the amateurism of his first term. His allies around Washington have drawn up a detailed agenda, one that Harris and her allies have successfully weaponized to the point that some Project 2025’s authors have already been blackballed from any access to Trump.
But abortion rights was the central focus of the evening’s message. One in three American women live in a state where abortion is not an option. In Texas, for example, health care providers face jail if they perform abortions, and there are cash incentives—bounties, really—for Texans who report those who pursue the procedure or help someone obtain one. It’s why roughly three dozen doctors in white coats took the stage ahead of Harris, and multiple Texans spoke of their own personal crises trying to secure abortions for non-viable pregnancies.
Read more: That Texas Abortion Case Is Even Worse Than You Think
The evening was one that brought a major dose of enthusiasm for a campaign that has struggled to nudge the race out of its coin-toss status. The line stretched block after block. Some arrived before dawn to make sure they got primo seats when doors opened in the late afternoon. With a vibe more approximating a music festival than a political rally, newcomers to elections were plentiful—which is exactly what Democrats need if they’re going to have a shot at the Senate race—or maybe the longest of long shots at the state’s 40 electoral votes.
As a political matter, Harris billed the event as a rally about reproductive rights that, frankly, are lacking in Texas. But the audience was far from those inside the stadium.
The message, at least inside the concert that happened to have a political PSA sprinkled in it, seemed to have accomplished its surface-level mission. It’s why, as TIME’s Charlotte Alter recently reported, Democrats are suddenly hopeful that the election outcome could hinge on abortion rights.
“I’m not really into politics, but I wanted to come and see for myself,” says Lakeita Crawford, a 32-year-old Houston resident who is self-employed. “I feel like people want to support Kamala, but she needed to come and connect with us. I’m no fan of Donald Trump but I want to be here to hear Harris.”
Across the soccer field, 24-year-old Jasman Worthy stood at the front of the barricade at her first-ever political event. “Girl power,” she said with enthusiasm. “We have to support Kamala. She gets Houston, and we have to get her back.”
In that, the communal nature of the evening suggests that Harris may have tapped into a stream of politics that few have been able to credibly reach. Movements seldom come together on such a short timeline, but they also usually lack a built-in brand loyalty like Beyoncé. In that, her campaign is doing little to dampen the built-in fierceness that comes with that icon.
Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter.