Kamala Harris Breaks Her Own Rally Crowd Record in 24 Hours

Vice President Kamala Harris has reportedly smashed her own rally crowd size record for the second time in just 24 hours.

Harris headlined a jam-packed event, attended by around 23,000 people in Clarkston, Georgia, on Thursday night, beating out her campaign’s previous attendance record of about 17,000 in Greensboro, North Carolina, last month.

The vice president’s record was broken again on Friday night at a star-studded rally at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston. Celebrities in attendance included megastar Beyoncé, whose song “Freedom” has been heavily used by the Harris campaign.

The Harris team said around 30,000 supporters filled the Texas rally, according to multiple reports. Over 1.5 million reportedly registered to attend the rally. The venue has a seating capacity of just over 22,000, although it typically hosts outdoor sporting events and many Harris supporters were standing on the field Friday.

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung argued in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that the event was really “a Beyonce concert,” suggesting that any media coverage of the large crowd would amount to an attempt to “gaslight” those who believe Harris “could never” draw a large crowd.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Harris campaign via email on Friday night.

Despite preemptive assertions from the Trump campaign, Beyoncé did not perform at the Harris rally on Friday. Instead, the singer delivered a short speech to make the case for Harris before introducing the vice president.

“I’m not here as a celebrity,” Beyoncé said. “I’m not here as a politician, I’m here as a mother. A mother who cares deeply about the world our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies [and] a world where we are not divided.”

Shortly after Harris arrived on stage, a group of Trump supporters attempted to disrupt the event by heckling the Democratic candidate, prompting her to mock their effort and suggest that they were at the wrong rally.

“You know what? Just send them to that small rally down the street, it’ll be fine,” said Harris. “Some people don’t have a great sense of direction. But that’s OK, we’ll show them the way.”

Trump, who frequently touts his rally crowd sizes and has claimed without evidence that Harris uses artificial intelligence to boost her crowd numbers, was also in Texas on Friday. He reportedly spoke to a far more modest crowd of around 100 supporters in Austin before recording a podcast interview with Joe Rogan.

Due to the podcast recording, the former president’s arrival for a rally at a small airport in Traverse City, Michigan, was significantly delayed on Friday night, causing some Trump supporters to leave the event before he took the stage.

While sharing a video to X, formerly Twitter, NBC News reporter Megan Lebowitz wrote that a “steady stream of people” left Trump’s rally by around 45 minutes after he was originally scheduled to speak.

Update 10/25/24, 11:45 p.m.: This article was updated with further information and context.