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Vice President Kamala Harris is set to travel to Texas on Friday for a campaign event focused on the impact of abortion bans, highlighting one of the few chances Democrats have to pick up a Senate seat this year.  

In Houston, Harris will be joined by Rep. Colin Allred, the Democrat running a tough race against incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who has held his seat since 2013. 

The choice to visit Texas — where Trump is up by six points, according to the latest national polling averages compiled by The New York Times — reflects the degree to which the Harris campaign is centering reproductive freedom as a key campaign issue. It also speaks to Democrats’ view that Allred’s race against Cruz as winnable — and would help them maintain control of the Senate. Cruz cosponsored a 20-week federal abortion ban in 2021, before Roe was overturned. According to the Texas Tribune, he cosponsored a similar ban at least six times during his time in the Senate. Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas in over 30 years.

Cruz leads in all polls of Texas, but Democrats are defending a number of Senate seats and have few chances to take one held by Republicans to hold on to their majority. Abortion was a focal point of the debate between Allred and Cruz last week; Allred has been a strong supporter of abortion rights and reproductive health care since arriving in Congress in 2019 and has been a vocal opponent of proposed restrictions on interstate travel for abortion access. Should he win his race, he is thought to be a key figure for Democrats’ continued push for protecting reproductive health care, though any federal legislation to shore up abortion access would face long odds in the Senate. 

In Houston, Harris will speak on the consequences of the abortion bans. Maternal mortality has jumped by 56 percent in Texas following the enforcement of its 2021 ban on abortion from the point of fetal cardiac activity, which can occur as early as five weeks gestational age. Infant deaths increased 13 percent in the same time. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Texas enforced a near-total ban. The state allows for civil claims to be brought against physicians who provide abortions, including treating ectopic pregnancies and providing miscarriage management. 

Former President Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, takes credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Following the Dobbs ruling, Harris became the Biden administration’s key communicator on its impact, and messaging about what she has called the “Trump abortion bans” has been a signature of her vice presidency and presidential campaign. 

The news of Harris’ Texas trip this week comes via a senior Harris campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign planning. 

Harris and President Joe Biden have highlighted the stories of Texans impacted by the state’s abortion ban, including Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the Texas ban, and Kate Cox, who entered national headlines after she was forced to leave the state for an abortion after her doctor determined that her pregnancy was both nonviable and a threat to her health. 

Zurawski developed life-threatening sepsis and almost died after her water broke when she was 18 weeks pregnant; doctors determined that the fetus would not survive, but also said they could not terminate the pregnancy as a result of the state’s abortion law. Zurawski has emerged as a key figure in the Harris campaign; in April, when Biden was still the Democratic nominee, the campaign released an ad entitled “Willow’s Box” featuring Zurawski and her husband speaking about the trauma of losing a much-wanted pregnancy. 

Cox, already the mother of two who is now pregnant, spoke at the Democratic National Convention about her abortion story — and the fact that it is only because she was able to access an abortion that she is once again pregnant and able to grow her family as she had hoped. Cox had filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas in December to obtain a medical exemption to Texas’ abortion ban; a district court judge ruled in her favor, a decision ultimately overturned by the Texas Supreme Court. Allred released a campaign ad featuring Cox last week. 

Zurawski and Cox have both crisscrossed the country campaigning on behalf of Harris, sharing their stories and underscoring Harris’ central message of reproductive freedom. 

In Texas, Harris will also be taping a podcast episode with popular researcher and academic Brene Brown. Her Texas visit follows a Thursday stop in Atlanta, a place she visited just this Saturday to once again underscore her attacks against the “Trump abortion bans.”
Over the past month, Harris has repeatedly highlighted the story of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after developing sepsis after complications from a medication abortion she had traveled out of state to receive. Because of Georgia’s law banning abortion after six weeks gestational age, Thurman faced delays in receiving care that ultimately resulted in her death, which was deemed preventable by Georgia’s medical review board.

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