Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, dropped her first campaign ad on Thursday featuring a Beyoncé anthem, Donald Trump’s mugshot and clips from her electric first campaign rally.
32-time Grammy winner Beyoncé recently gave Harris permission to campaign with her 2016 song “Freedom” ― a word the Republican Party lawmakers and candidates regularly invoke when talking about the right to bear arms and other conservative causes. It’s also in the name of the party’s far-right caucus.
Harris’ ad is an attempt to flip the switch on that word.
“There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate,” Harris says in voiceover, as grainy footage of Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, rolls and “Freedom” plays in the background.
“We choose freedom,” Harris says, over clips from her energetic campaign kickoff in Wisconsin. “The freedom not just to get by but get ahead, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to make decisions about your own body.
“We choose a future where no child lives in poverty. Where we can all afford health care,” she continues. And, as Trump’s mugshot flashes across the screen: “Where no one is above the law.”
Though Beyoncé has not yet formally endorsed Harris, she’s endorsed fellow Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in years past.
