Harris focuses on abortion in Texas, as Trump heads to Michigan

HOUSTON - Ms Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took a detour from barnstorming the battleground states that will decide November’s election with Oct 25 stops in Texas, a conservative state that was the first to implement a near-total abortion ban.

Texas has not backed a Democratic president since 1976, and Republican Trump is almost certain to win the state’s 40 electoral college votes.

But Democrats are betting it will provide a powerful backdrop for Vice-President Harris to talk about abortion rights in the final days before the Nov 5 election.

Superstar singer Beyonce, who was born in Houston,

fired up the crowd by introducing Ms Harris,

who came on stage to a recording of Beyonce’s song Freedom, which was made her campaign anthem. She did not sing, however.

Ms Harris spoke about the danger former president Trump and Republicans could present to abortion rights across the country if he were elected, a campaign source said, joined by women who have suffered after Texas’ anti-abortion regulations were passed and their family members.

“Texas, what is happening across this state and our country is a healthcare crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of it,” Ms Harris said.

Texas implemented a first-of-its kind law in September 2021 that

banned abortion after six weeks

and allowed anyone to sue abortion patients in violation and those who assisted them.

The US 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 June 2022.

In between personal stories of abortion-related tragedy, and before Beyonce took the stage, the rally took on the air of a dance party, with people swaying and singing along to a DJ.

While Beyonce appealed to a younger crowd, 91-year-old Willie Nelson showed earlier in the event that he still has cachet in his native Texas.

“Are we ready to say Madam President?“ Nelson asked the crowd before launching into Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, to which the audience sang along.

He closed with On The Road Again.

Trump was also campaigning in Texas on Oct 25, making a stop in Austin to record an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience”, a popular podcast with tens of millions of social media followers, most of them men.

After a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan in Texas, Trump arrived late to a rally in battleground state Michigan.

“We’ve got a war going, and she’s out partying,” Trump said on the evening of Oct 25, a reference to

Israel’s attacks on Iran.

In his interview with Rogan, Trump again suggested he favoured eliminating income tax and replacing the lost revenue with tariffs.

“Did you just float out the idea of getting rid of income taxes and replacing it with tariffs? Are we serious about that?” Rogan asked.

“Yeah, sure. Why not?“ Trump replied.

Ms Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s programme about a possible appearance, but scheduling did not line up, spokesperson Ian Sams said on MSNBC on Oct 24.

Trump has lost ground with women voters since Ms Harris became the Democratic candidate, polls show, although the two are

in a tight race in the battleground states.

Ms Harris

led Trump by 49 per cent to 36 per cent,

or 13 percentage points, among women voters in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published late in August, compared with her 9-point lead in polls conducted in July.

Trump has taken credit for appointing the justices who helped overturn Roe v Wade.

Since

winning the Republican primary

earlier in 2024, however, he has sought the support of moderate and independent voters, saying he would not support a national ban on abortions and that individual states should be free to restrict abortion as they choose.

He called for exceptions on any ban to include incidents of rape and incest or to protect the health of the mother.

However, Trump said in August

he would vote against an amendment in his home state of Florida

to protect abortion rights that would lift a six-week abortion ban, before many women know they are pregnant.

The majority of Americans have clearly disagreed with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe, fuelling a wave of Democratic wins in

the 2022 midterm elections

and leaving Republicans scrambling to find a winning message on the issue.

Personal stories

Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred also attended Ms Harris’ rally, as Democrats sought to give him a boost in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

Ms Harris led the Biden administration’s reproductive rights initiatives and has made the issue a cornerstone of her presidential campaign. Democrats have highlighted personal stories to show the impact of abortion being almost entirely banned in 16 states.

Ahead of the Houston trip, her campaign released an ad featuring a Texas woman who was denied an emergency abortion when her water broke at 16 weeks in 2022 and who then almost died of sepsis.

An analysis by Jama Pediatrics, a medical journal, found that Texas saw a larger increase in infant mortality than the rest of the country after enforcing the abortion ban, and early reports indicate that Texas has also seen a significant increase in maternal deaths. REUTERS