30,000 people showed up in Houston last night in person too:
Betting that abortion access can be a winning message in Texas and across the country, Vice President Kamala Harris rallied more than 30,000 people in downtown Houston Friday night to “Vote for reproductive freedom.”
Those words were emblazoned behind Harris, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, Texas country legend Willie Nelson and global pop superstar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as they declared the next 11 days leading up to Election Day as the final push in an existential fight for freedom.
In her 30-minute speech, Harris keyed in on her campaign’s closing message for the election’s final days, framing the issues of democracy and reproductive rights as two sides of the same coin. Harris argued Trump and other Republican officials will erode citizens’ rights, pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade and abortion bans across much of the South as proof that rights can be taken away.
“We are 11 days out from an election that will decide the future of America, including the freedom of every woman to make decisions about her own body and her own freedom,” Harris said.
While Harris received loud cheers from the crowd throughout her speech, the biggest roar of the night occurred when Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland walked on to the stage to speak.
“I am not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician, I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said. “A mother who cares deeply about the world 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.”
Beyoncé and Rowland spoke of their childhoods growing up in Houston, where they founded Destiny’s Child before going on to stardom. Rowland said the city has a role to play in this year’s election.
“Now Houston, you’ve already had a hand in creating destiny, so do what you do and do this thing again,” Rowland said.
By the way, this won’t work either:
Look at this:
Jamelle Bouie has an interesting observation in his newsletter about the gender gap. Why is everyone looking at the boys? (Yeah, I know…)
Every election cycle has its own story lines. This year, one of them is that young men love Donald Trump. Consider a few recent headlines.
From Politico: “‘They’re Just Over It’: How Trump Has Converted Male Frustration Into a Movement’.”
From NBC News: “For Him or Against Him, Young Men See the Election as All About Trump.”
And from NPR: “Why Some Young Male Voters Are Moving to Trump.”
Most of the evidence for this comes from focus groups and polls. In an August Times/Siena poll, for example, men aged 18 to 29 favored Trump by 13 points while women in the same age range favored Kamala Harris by 38 points.
To explain this swing to the right among young men, most observers look to the larger cultural environment. They say that our institutions stress inclusion and women’s empowerment in a way that alienates young men. They say that men feel undervalued and that Democrats don’t respect traditional masculine values. They say that young men are looking for a strong economy that would help them support a family, and that these men believe Trump will make it happen.
I think this narrative is a bit overstated. There’s no doubt that many young men are more supportive of Trump than they are of Harris. But overall, according to the most recent Harvard Youth Poll, young men who “definitely plan to vote” back Harris over Trump — 55 percent to 38 percent. For evidence in favor of the view that young men favor Trump, look no further than a recent survey of young male voters from Blueprint, a Democratic polling firm: Most men ages 18 to 29 rank inflation, jobs and the economy as top issues and trust Trump to handle them over Harris. Still, most of men surveyed by Blueprint have a favorable view of Harris — more favorable, in fact, than that of men ages 30 to 49.
But to my eye, Trump’s inroads — however large or modest they might be — with young men are less striking than Harris’s enormous lead with young women. The gender gap among young voters is as large as it has ever been. According to the Harvard poll, 70 percent of likely voters among young women of color favor Harris, as against 15 percent for Trump. The former president leads among young men across the three most recent Times/Siena polls, but Harris maintains a similar 67-to-28 advantage among young women there as well. You can find similar spreads in every available poll of the national race. Women overwhelming favor Harris, and men largely favor Trump.
The gender gap among young women has not inspired the same level of analysis and deep focus as has the gender gap with young men. Even a close reader of election coverage may forget for a moment that this is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs more than two years ago. If there were ever an election in which to focus on the political behavior of young women, it’s this one.
I don’t make predictions anymore, so I won’t try to make a guess about what these gaps mean for the final outcome. But I will say that if Kamala Harris wins the White House, we may look back and say that we should have focused a little more on the women, young and otherwise, who most likely made the difference.
Yes, I believe that’s the case. But I will also bet that most of the analysis will be on how Harris and the Democrats are failing men. And so it goes.
