Kamala Harris is championing women's issues with support from Beyoncé

HOUSTON – “Do we trust women?” Vice President Kamala Harris asked a cheering crowd of 30,000 at Shell Energy Stadium on Friday.

With just 11 days until the Nov. 5 election, Harris banked on a cornerstone of her campaign: reproductive freedom. It's a message she championed as vice president after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade fell. And now it was a message she leaned on while locked in a razor-thin race against Republican Donald Trump.

With Texas as a backdrop, Harris urged voters to go to the polls and vote for her — and other Democrats — to help restore abortion protections.

“You are ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom,” Harris told the crowd after global star Beyoncé Knowles-Carter introduced her to the crowd. “We have to be loud, we have to organize, we have to mobilize, we have to energize people.”

Beyoncé, a mother of three, announced her support for Harris because she believes the vice president will bring progress to the country and give Americans the freedom to make their own decisions.

“I’m 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 in which my children and all our children live, a world in which we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world in which we are not divided.”

But Harris' message comes at a time when the gap between men and women — from how they view the state of the union to which candidate they vote for — has widened. According to the latest USA TODAY/Suffolk University national poll, a majority of women (53%) support Harris, while 36% support Trump. These numbers are almost identical to the number of men who support Trump over Harris, 53% to 37%.

And abortion and women's rights do not rank high among men – just 2% said it was their top issue, the survey found. Among women, 17% said this was the most important measure. The economy and inflation were the most common top topic for both genders, although for a higher percentage of men.

President Joe Biden told reporters on Saturday that men who supported his candidacy and did not support Harris were “making a mistake, in my humble opinion.”

Hours before Harris took the stage, Gilbert Landry joined his wife, Karen, in the humid and humid Texas heat to witness Harris' historic nomination. The couple waited more than three hours with family and friends to enter the stadium.

“This is the first time in my life I’ve seen something so great,” Gilbert Landry said.

Landry, 72, who served in the military and worked for the federal government for decades, is aware that Harris and the Democrats have a problem with men. He said Trump appeals to men, particularly young black men, because he embodies a message of opportunity.

“The pressure on men is great. Period,” he said. “Especially men who don’t have the opportunity to stand up and do what they need to do for their own survival in this country.”

But he believes men need to “do their own thing” and learn more about government to make an informed decision about who to vote for.

Landry and his wife Karen also have two daughters and are concerned about their rights.

“I don’t think the policy that Trump put in place and signed is to say you don’t have a say over your body,” Karen said of the Roe v. Wade repeal. “I don’t agree with that.”

In another line that snaked through the stadium, Joel Avendano of Houston waited to enter with his partner. Avendano, 40, said he believes Harris can unite the country.

“She is here to unite us,” he said. That's the main reason why men shouldn't be afraid to vote for her. He also believes that women's reproductive rights should be important to men.

“Even women’s issues are men’s issues,” he said.

Rueben Butler, 65, of Houston, stood in the arena waiting to see Harris, for whom he had voted early days earlier.

Butler, wearing a green and pink striped shirt to represent the sorority to which Harris belongs, aka, isn't worried about men defecting from the Democratic Party. For him, it is important that they are informed about who they are voting for and what policies the candidates stand for.

“Everyone has the right to their own opinion and their own decisions,” he said. “But don’t make it because you didn’t do any research. Don’t just be ignorant about it.”

While Harris told women not only in the stadium but also online viewers that it was time to choose a candidate who would protect women's health, she also urged their husbands, fathers and brothers to do the same .

“I see the men here and I thank you,” Harris said during her rally. “Men in America don’t want that.”

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