Former president Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the month leading up to Election Day, kicking off his efforts with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday, according to a senior campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss unannounced campaign activity.<\/p>\n
Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz said in a news release that the former president is doing \u201ceverything he can to help elect Vice President Harris\u201d and Democrats across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races,\u201d Schultz said. \u201cMany of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama, the country\u2019s first Black president, is the nation\u2019s most popular Democrat and still wields considerable influence in his party. After President Joe Biden\u2019s faltering debate performance against Donald Trump, Obama told allies that the president needed to reconsider whether his candidacy was viable. Obama and his wife, Michelle, endorsed Harris shortly after Biden left the presidential race and Harris became the presumptive nominee. Since then, the Obamas have said Harris represents a continuation of the same vision of America that helped Obama make history in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we work like we\u2019ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions \u2014 we will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States,\u201d Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in August. \u201cWe\u2019ll elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris was an early supporter of Obama, traveling to Iowa during the 2008 campaign to knock on doors for him. The two of them have a relationship that stretches back two decades.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s efforts so far on her behalf \u2014 fundraising content and events that feature him \u2014 have raised $76 million for the presidential campaign this cycle, in addition to events for various fundraising arms of the Democratic Party. Obama will participate in more of those activities in the coming month, and travel the country to mobilize voters for Harris and other Democrats.<\/p>\n
Obama has played an increasingly active role in campaign efforts, including headlining a Los Angeles fundraiser last month that raised $4 million for Harris.<\/p>\n
The announcement of Obama\u2019s increased activity comes during a week that Harris\u2019s campaign has touted several Republican endorsements, including by former congresswoman Liz Cheney. Many Democrats see the vice president as the natural inheritor of the multicultural, multiracial coalition that put Obama into office.<\/p>\n
Obama was the featured speaker on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, opining on Trump\u2019s \u201cweird obsession with crowd sizes,\u201d a line that had been featured in Harris campaign ads needling her opponent.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s ascension to the top of the ticket has brought parity to the presidential race, and the race remains effectively tied in the key battleground states that will probably decide the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n
The two sides have not agreed to another presidential debate, and time is dwindling to do anything that will substantively change the race.<\/p>\n
In his DNC speech, Obama warned that Democrats shouldn\u2019t become complacent because of Harris\u2019s fundraising success or her initial success in closing the polling gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd make no mistake: It will be a fight,\u201d he said. \u201cFor all the incredible energy we\u2019ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, for all the rallies and the memes, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Former president Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the month leading up to Election Day, kicking off his efforts with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday, according to a senior campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss unannounced campaign activity. Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz said in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}