Kamala Harris embraces women’s issues with support from Beyoncé

HOUSTON – “Do we trust women?” Vice President Kamala Harris asked a crowd of 30,000 attendees at Shell Energy Stadium on Friday.

With just 11 days until the Nov. 5 election, Harris leaned on a cornerstone of her campaign: reproductive freedom. It’s a message she’s championed as vice president after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And now, there was a message she was leaning into as she is locked in a slim race against Republican Donald Trump.

With Texas as a backdrop, Harris urged voters to head to the polls to vote for her — and other Democrats — to help restore abortion protections.

“You are ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom,” Harris told the crowd after global superstar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter introduced her to the crowd. “We have to be loud, we have to organize, we have to mobilize, we have to energize people. “

Beyoncé, a mother of three, announced her support for Harris because she believes the vice president will bring progress to the country and give Americans the freedom to choose their own bodies.

“I’m not here as a celebrity. I am not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” said Beyoncé, “A mother who cares deeply 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.”

But Harris’ message comes as the divide between men and women — from how they view the state of the nation to which candidate they’re voting for — has grown. A majority of women (53%) support Harris, while 36% support Trump, according to the latest USA TODAY/Suffolk University National Poll. Those numbers are nearly identical to the number of men who support Trump over Harris, 53 percent to 37 percent.

And abortion and women’s rights don’t rank highly among men – just 2 percent said it was their top issue – the survey found. For women, 17% said it was the most important policy. The economy and inflation were the most common top issues among both sexes, but for a higher percentage of men.

President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday that the men who endorsed his candidacy and did not endorse Harris “are making a mistake in my humble opinion.”

Still in the sweltering, humid Texas heat hours before Harris took the stage, Gilbert Landry joined his wife, Karen, to witness Harris’ historic nomination. The couple waited for more than three hours with family and friends to make their way inside the stadium.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever seen something so magnificent,” said Gilbert Landry.

Landry, 72, who was a member of the military and worked for the federal government for decades, knows that Harris and the Democrats have a problem with men. He said Trump is attractive to men, and young black men in particular, because he presents a message of opportunity.

“There is a lot of pressure on men. Period,” he said. “Especially men who don’t have the opportunities to stand up and do what they need to do for their own survival in this country.”

But he believes men need to “do their own thing” and learn more about government to make an informed decision about who to vote for.

Landry and his wife, Karen, also have two daughters and are concerned about their rights.

“I don’t think the policy that Trump put in place and approved saying you don’t have a say in your bodies,” Karen said of overturning Roe v. Wade. “I don’t agree with that.”

In another line snaking around the stadium, Houston resident Joel Avendano waited to get in with his partner. Avendano, 40, said he believes Harris can unify the country.

“It’s here to unite us,” he said. This is the main reason why men should not be afraid to vote for her. He also believes that women’s reproductive rights should matter to men.

“Even women’s problems are men’s problems,” he said.

Rueben Butler, 65, of Houston, was standing inside the arena waiting to see Harris, for whom he had already voted early days earlier.

Butler, who is wearing a green and pink striped shirt to represent the sorority AKA Harris is a part of, isn’t concerned about men drifting away from the Democratic Party. What is important to him is that they are informed about who is voting and what policies the candidates support.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and their own choices,” he said. “But you fail because you haven’t done any research. Don’t just be ignorant about it.”

As Harris told women not just in the stadium, but watching online, that it’s time to elect a candidate who will protect women’s health, she asked their husbands, fathers and brothers to do the same thing.

“I see the men here and I thank you,” Harris said during the rally. “The men of America don’t want that.”