Political figures frequently broadcast their preferred tunes across the campaign path—often neglecting to consult the musicians first—this is hardly a novel practice. Nonetheless, the current vice president and candidate for the 2024 presidential race, Kamala Harris, appears to handle matters differently. On Tuesday, reports indicated that Beyoncé personally granted Harris the right to use her track “Freedom” during her presidential bid. This is not unfamiliar territory for Beyoncé, having supported significant Democratic figures (or at least her music doing so) in the past—she notably performed the national anthem at former president Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration—but the rapidity with which she seemingly approved Harris’s song selection is truly remarkable, especially given that President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday and Harris made an appearance to “Freedom” during her initial official visit to her campaign headquarters on Monday.
The song “Freedom,” also featuring Kendrick Lamar, remains one of the standout tracks on Beyoncé’s acclaimed 2016 album Lemonade, making it evident that Harris’s team is adept at staying in tune with current musical trends. (After all, Charli XCX is on board with her!) Beyoncé’s support is not the sole endorsement from her family either. Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles (known to admirers as Ms. Tina), expressed her support for Harris on Sunday by sharing a photo of the two together and penned on Instagram: “New, Youthful, Sharp, energy !!!!…Go Vice President Kamala Harris for President.”
Diehard Kamala enthusiasts familiar with her biography will understand the thematic significance of this song to Harris’s own family narrative: In 2020, she narrated a tale of attending a civil rights demonstration in Oakland, California, with her relatives as a youngster. “I’m fussing,” Harris recounted, “and [my mother’s] like, ‘Baby, what is it you want? What is it you need?’ And I simply gazed at her and uttered, ‘Fweedom.’”
Ideally, further freedom—particularly for those marginalized communities who would endure the harshest under a Donald Trump presidency if the oppressive measures proposed in Project 2025 came to fruition—is precisely what a Harris administration might deliver.