“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said at a campaign rally for Kamala Harris.
“A mother who is very concerned about the world that 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,” she said Friday night in Houston.
“Imagine our daughters growing up and seeing what’s possible without ceilings, without limitations,” she continued. “We need to vote and we need you.”
At the end, Beyoncé, who was joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, introduced Harris. “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, loud, Texas welcome to the next president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hilary Clinton in Cleveland
Houston is Beyoncé’s hometown, and Harris’ presidential campaign has adopted Beyoncé’s 2016 song “Freedom,” a track from her breakthrough 2016 album “Lemonade,” as its anthem.
Harris first used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave Harris permission to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaigning, The Associated Press confirmed.
In the second half of “Lemonade,” “Freedom” samples two field recordings by John and Alan Lomax, who document Jim Crow-era folk spirituals from black churches in the South and black inmate work songs from 1959 and 1948, respectively. Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar also appears.
Kinitra D. Brooks, an academic and author of “The Lemonade Reader,” says the song “‘Freedom’ is so important because it shows that freedom isn’t free. The freedom to be yourself, the political freedom … it’s the idea that you have to fight for freedom, and that it can be won.”
The Harris rally in Houston highlighted the dangerous medical consequences of the state’s strict abortion ban and placed the blame squarely on Donald Trump.
Since abortion was restricted in Texas, the state’s infant mortality rate has increased, more babies have died from birth defects, and maternal mortality has risen.