Former President Barack Obama will be campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in key battleground states in the run-up to Election Day—a move that could give her campaign a boost with Black voters, as she fails to match President Joe Biden‘s 2020 figures.
The Harris campaign said Obama, who served as president from 2009 to 2017, will travel around the country to rally voters for the final 27 days before the election, starting with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
The announcement of Obama’s plans to hit the campaign trail came as polls have shown Harris, while still having the support of the majority of Black voters, is lagging behind Biden’s 2020 margins with the key demographic.
CNN’s latest poll found Harris is leading former President Donald Trump by a wide margin, 79 percent to 16 percent. Black voters were crucial to Biden’s victory in 2020, when 92 percent voted for him and 8 percent backed Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
Obama, the nation’s first Black president, remains popular with the Democratic base and his efforts in the closing weeks of the campaign could encourage undecided Black voters to turn out for Harris, who would be the first Black woman, the first Asian American and the first South Asian American to be elected president.
That could be significant in what polls show is set to be a tight race that could be decided by small margins in swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania.
“Everyone saw the reception that the Obamas received at the Democratic convention,” Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek.
“There’s enormous nostalgia for Barack Obama, not least among Black voters. From that perspective, Obama going on the campaign trail for Harris can only help her, especially as Harris tries to revive Obama’s 2008 optimism with a message of ‘hope and change.'”
The “problem for Harris is that she’s having a harder time conveying that message because she’s herself part of the incumbent government,” Gift said. “At the same time she’s saying it’s time for a new generation, she’s irrevocably tied to what the White House has done for the last four years.”
Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment via email.
“President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor [Tim] Walz and Democrats across the country,” Obama adviser Eric Schultz said in a news release.
“His goals are to win the White House, keep the U.S. Senate, and take back the House of Representatives. Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races. Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted.”
Fundraising and events featuring Obama have raised $76 million for the presidential campaign this cycle, Obama’s office said.
The former president was reportedly part of a behind-the-scenes push to persuade Biden to quit his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate performance. Days after the president stepped down, Obama and his wife Michelle Obama endorsed Harris.
In his speech at the Democratic convention in August, Obama said Harris “has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and champion” and “actually cares about what other people are going through.”
He added: “If we each do our part over the next 77 days, if we knock on doors, if we make phone calls, if we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work like we’ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States and Tim Walz as the next vice president of the United States.
“We will elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in.”