By Trevor Hunnicutt, Gabriella Borter and Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are taking 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 school votes.
However Democrats are betting it’ll present a robust backdrop for Vice President Harris to speak about abortion rights within the ultimate days earlier than the Nov. 5 election.
Harris will communicate 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.
“This election will determine the future of reproductive freedom for generations to come,” Harris will say, in accordance with ready remarks. “In just four years as president, Donald Trump was able to erase half a century of hard-fought progress for women.”
Texas carried out a first-of-its form legislation in September 2021 that banned abortion after six weeks and allowed anybody to sue abortion sufferers in violation and people who assisted them.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom, with a conservative majority shaped by Trump’s judicial appointments, allowed the legislation to face, after which gutted federal abortion rights by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Famous person singer Beyonce is anticipated to affix Harris at her Houston cease and carry out, two sources informed Reuters. Harris has made Beyonce’s music “Freedom” her marketing campaign anthem. Hundreds stood in line for the occasion for hours, some fainting within the Texas warmth.
Trump was additionally campaigning in Texas on Friday, making a cease in Austin to document an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a preferred podcaster with tens of tens of millions of social media followers, most of them males. He’s then heading to battleground state Michigan.
Harris’ staff had been in contact with Rogan’s program a few doable 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 decent race within the battleground states.
Harris led Trump by 49% to 36%, or 13 proportion 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 nevertheless, he has sought the assist of reasonable and impartial voters, saying he wouldn’t assist a nationwide ban on abortions and that particular person states ought 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. Nevertheless, Trump mentioned in August he would vote in opposition to an modification in his residence state of Florida to guard abortion rights that might raise 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 challenge for girls voters underneath age 30.
PERSONAL STORIES
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred can also be anticipated to attend Harris’ rally, as Democrats search 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 indicate the affect of abortion being virtually fully 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 stay in Texas, in accordance with the Middle for Reproductive Rights.
An evaluation by JAMA Pediatrics, a medical journal, discovered that Texas noticed a bigger improve in toddler mortality than the remainder of the U.S. after implementing the abortion ban, and early reviews point out that Texas has additionally seen a major improve in maternal deaths.
