Former President Barack Obama is coming to the aid of Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground states during the final stretch of the 2024 campaign.
A senior Harris campaign official told POLITICO on Friday that beginning next week, Obama will start a swing-state “blitz,” speaking at rallies in support of the Democratic nominee. Obama’s first appearance on the battleground state trail will be in the Pittsburgh area on Thursday, POLITICO reported. The former president is then expected to hit multiple Rust Belt and Sun Belt states.
Pennsylvania is considered one of the most important states for Harris and former President Donald Trump to win, and the current polling shows the candidates in a tie, according to RealClearPolitics. Obama’s visit to Pennsylvania will come just five days after Trump returns to Butler on Saturday to hold a rally at the site where he was shot in an assassination attempt on July 13.
While Obama has not appeared with Harris at any 2024 campaign rallies, the former president has voiced his support for the Democratic nominee, including in a speech at the party’s convention in August. Following President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, Obama remained silent for five days before he joined other Democrats and threw his support behind Harris, who was crowned as the Democrats’ nominee without receiving any primary votes.
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“Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend Kamala Harris,” Obama wrote in an early morning post on July 26. “We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in November. We hope you’ll join us.”
During Obama’s DNC speech, the former president praised Biden for stepping aside, claiming he set “his own ambition aside for the sake of the country.” Days before Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, however, Obama — along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — expressed their concerns to allies about the president’s 2024 chances, according to the Associated Press. Nearly a dozen people reportedly told the AP that Obama had a role in urging Biden to withdraw from the race after his disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27.