By Trevor Hunnicutt, Gabriella Borter and Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took a detour from barnstorming the battleground states that can determine November’s election with Friday stops in Texas, a conservative state that was the primary to implement a near-total abortion ban.
Texas hasn’t backed a Democratic president since 1976, and Republican Trump is nearly sure to win the state’s 40 electoral faculty votes.
However Democrats are betting it’s going to present a strong backdrop for Vice President Harris to speak about abortion rights within the remaining days earlier than the Nov. 5 election.
Famous person singer Beyonce, who was born in Houston, fired up the gang by intoducing Harris, who got here on stage to a recording of Beyonce’s track “Freedom,” which has made her marketing campaign anthem. She didn’t sing nonetheless.
Harris spoke in regards to the hazard former President Trump and Republicans might current to abortion rights throughout the nation if he is elected, a marketing campaign supply mentioned, and be joined by ladies who’ve suffered after Texas’ anti-abortion rules have been handed and their relations.
“Texas, what is occurring throughout this state and our nation is a well being care disaster, and Donald Trump is the architect of it,” Harris mentioned.
Texas carried out a first-of-its sort legislation in September 2021 that banned abortion after six weeks and allowed anybody to sue abortion sufferers in violation and those that assisted them.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom, with a conservative majority fashioned by Trump’s judicial appointments, allowed the legislation to face, after which gutted federal abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
In between private tales of abortion-related tragedy, and earlier than Beyonce took the stage, the rally took on the air of a dance social gathering, with individuals swaying and singing alongside to a DJ.
Whereas Beyonce appealed to a youthful crowd, 91-year-old Willie Nelson confirmed earlier within the occasion that he nonetheless has cachet in his native Texas.
“Are we able to say Madam President?” Nelson requested the gang earlier than launching into “Mammas Do not Let Your Infants Develop As much as Be Cowboys,” to which the viewers sang alongside.
He closed with “On the Street Once more”
Trump was additionally campaigning in Texas on Friday, making a cease in Austin to report an episode of “The Joe Rogan Expertise,” a preferred podcaster with tens of tens of millions of social media followers, most of them males.
After a three-hour interview with Rogan in Texas, Trump arrived late to a rally in battleground state Michigan.
“We’ve received a struggle going and she or he’s out partying,” Trump mentioned Friday night time, a reference to Israel’s assaults on Iran.
Harris’ crew had been in contact with Rogan’s program a couple of attainable look, however scheduling didn’t line up, spokesperson Ian Sams mentioned on MSNBC on Thursday.
Trump has misplaced floor with ladies voters since Harris grew to become the Democratic candidate, polls present, though the 2 are in a good race within the battleground states.
Harris led Trump by 49% to 36%, or 13 share factors, amongst ladies voters in a Reuters/Ipsos ballot printed late in August, in comparison with her 9-point lead in polls performed in July.
Trump has taken credit score for appointing the justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
Since profitable the Republican major earlier this yr nonetheless, he has sought the help of reasonable and impartial voters, saying he wouldn’t help a nationwide ban on abortions and that particular person states needs to be free to limit abortion as they select.
He known as for exceptions on any ban to incorporate incidents of rape and incest or to guard the well being of the mom. Nonetheless, Trump mentioned in August he would vote towards an modification in his residence state of Florida to guard abortion rights that may elevate a six week abortion ban, earlier than many ladies know they’re pregnant.
The vast majority of Individuals disagreed with the Supreme Courtroom’s overturning of Roe, which fueled a wave of Democratic wins within the 2022 midterm elections and left Republicans scrambling to discover a profitable message on the difficulty.
A current survey of ladies voters by KFF, a well being coverage analysis and information group, discovered that abortion was the highest difficulty for girls voters underneath age 30.
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Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred additionally attended Harris’ rally, as Democrats sought to present him a lift in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Harris led the Biden administration’s reproductive rights initiatives and has made the difficulty a cornerstone of her presidential marketing campaign.
Democrats have highlighted private tales to point out the impression of abortion being virtually solely banned in 16 states.
Forward of the Houston journey, her marketing campaign launched an advert that includes a Texas girl who was denied an emergency abortion when her water broke at 16 weeks in 2022 and who then virtually died of sepsis.
Some seven million ladies of reproductive age dwell in Texas, in keeping with the Heart for Reproductive Rights.
An evaluation by JAMA Pediatrics, a medical journal, discovered that Texas noticed a bigger enhance in toddler mortality than the remainder of the U.S. after implementing the abortion ban, and early studies point out that Texas has additionally seen a big enhance in maternal deaths.
