Beyoncé is expected at Harris' rally in Texas

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Beyonce is expected to appear at a rally for the vice president in her hometown of Houston on Friday Kamala Harrissaid three people familiar with the matter.

Harris' presidential campaign has adopted Beyonce's 2016 track “Freedom” as its anthem, and the singer's planned performance brings a high level of star power to what has become a key theme of the Democratic candidacy: freedom.

Harris will travel to the reliably Republican state just 10 days before Election Day to refocus her campaign against the former president Donald Trump on reproductive medicine, which Democrats see as a crucial issue this year.

The three people were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Harris campaign did not immediately comment.

Beyoncé's performance was expected to draw even more attention to the event – and to Harris' final message.

Harris' Houston trip will feature women affected by Texas' restrictive abortion laws, which came into force after the Supreme Court's 2022 Roe v. seven most battleground states.

Harris has focused her campaign on the idea that Trump poses a threat to American freedoms, from reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the freedom to be safe from gun violence.

Beyonce gave Harris permission early in her campaign to use “Freedom,” a soulful track from her breakthrough 2016 album “Lemonade,” in her debut ad. Harris has used his thumping chorus as a walk-out song at rallies since then.

Beyoncé's collaboration with Harris isn't the first time the Grammy winner has teamed up with a Democratic politician. Barack Obama and his wife Michelle danced as Beyoncé performed at the 2009 presidential inauguration ball.

In 2013 she sang the national anthem at Obama's second inauguration. Three years later, she and her husband Jay-Z performed a campaign concert for Democrat Hillary Clinton in Cleveland.

“Look how far we’ve come from speechlessness to the precipice of history — again,” Beyoncé said at the time. “But we have to vote.”

A poll conducted in January by Ipsos for the anti-polarization organization With Honor found that 64% of Democrats had a positive opinion of Beyoncé, compared to just 32% of Republicans. Overall, Americans were more likely to have a positive opinion than a negative one, 48% to 33%.

There was speculation as to whether the superstar would perform at the event this summer Democratic National Convention in Chicago reached a peak On the final night of the convention, rumors began circulating after celebrity news site TMZ posted an article that said, “Beyoncé is in Chicago preparing to perform for Kamala Harris on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.” The website attributed this to “multiple knowledgeable sources,” none of whom were named.

About an hour after Harris finished her speech, TMZ reported updated his story saying, “To quote the great Beyoncé: We gotta put our cards down, put them down, put them down… we got this wrong.” Harris ended up taking the stage to the star's song, but that was his only appearance.

Last year, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff attended Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour in Maryland afterwards Get tickets from Beyoncé herself. “Thanks for a fun date night @Beyonce,” Harris wrote on Instagram.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP