This time around, the rumors were true. Houston native Beyoncé Knowles-Carter returned to her hometown Friday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
The campaign’s anthem, Beyoncé’s 2016 song “Freedom,” played as Harris took the stage.
Back in August, rumors had circulated that the global music phenomenon was scheduled to perform at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — but that turned out to be empty talk. Still, while Beyoncé wasn’t there in person, she was there in another way. Just before Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, “Freedom” kicked in.
The track, which is a propulsive blend of hip-hop, gospel, and R&B, continues to be Harris’ anthem.
The Republicans Party has long touted freedom as a core principle — from the “freedom fries” that were introduced over the Iraq War to the House Freedom Caucus. With the Harris campaign’s emphasis on the word, she’s seeking to cast “freedom” as a Democratic party offering.
During her keynote DNC address in August, Harris referenced “freedom” a dozen times, stressing the kinds of rights and liberties — including reproductive freedom — she argues are at risk in November.
“In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at stake: the freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities, and places of worship; the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride; the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis; and the freedom that unlocks all the others — the freedom to vote,” Harris said.
During his acceptance speech in August, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, attempted to contrast his view of a Republican version of “freedom” with what he described as Democrats’ version of it. “When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers.”
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love,” he added. “Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
Several GOP former and current officials made an appearance at the convention, though, including John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona. He shared with his strange bedfellows that he no longer feels welcome in his party.
“I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans, who, like me, are in the political middle: John McCain’s Republican Party is gone, and we don’t owe a damn thing to what’s been left behind, he said on the second day of the convention.
Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization focusing on political engagement, told Capital B, “People have this feeling: ‘We don’t have to be like that. We can be something else.’ I really believe that Americans want that. And not only Black Americans. All Americans.”
“Freedom” has different meanings across the political spectrum. According to some critics of the Harris campaign, Democrats’ official version has its limits when it comes to including all voices in the conversation. While Palestinians “heard their names mentioned fleetingly by a handful of speakers [at the DNC],” Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in Vanity Fair, “they weren’t “granted the right to speak their names themselves.”
This story has been updated.