Former President Obama is hitting the campaign trail this weekend to try to boost his party in off-year elections.
Getting Obama, the party’s biggest star, on the road is an effort to ensure voters get to the polls, though there are questions about whether the former president still has the kind of standing to make a mark with voters in getting them out to vote.
“The 2025 off-year elections are not held in a normal election year so this is more about turnout than it is about persuasion,” said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, who worked as a senior adviser for Bernie Sander’s presidential campaigns. “So Obama does not hurt anything because you’re trying to remind people and motivate the base to go vote and the base still loves Obama.”
On Saturday, Obama will appear alongside Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democrat vying for governor in New Jersey. He will also stump for Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, hoping to give a last-minute push to both candidates.
If Sherrill and Spanberger win, it will give a much-needed shot in the arm to Democrats who are still reeling from last year’s devastating election, when Republicans won not only the White House but also the House and Senate.
While they remain out of power on Capitol Hill, Democrats have also leaned on governors across the nation in the last year — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — to flex their muscle at the state level.
And Obama, keenly aware of the importance of Democratic governors, is still a trusted messenger in the party.
“Governors’ races are always under-appreciated on our side but this cycle, it could mean the literal difference in democracy or not,” said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.
A Gallup poll out earlier this year showed that Obama is the most popular among all five living presidents, receiving the highest approval rating at 59 percent.
And Vale said Obama “may have a few more gray hairs each cycle” but “still has heat on his fastball coming out of the bullpen.”
“He is still a great campaigner, can give a barnburner of a speech, and helps turn out key constituencies as part of ‘get out the vote,’” he added.
Since leaving office nearly 10 years ago, Obama has taken a relatively low-key approach when it comes to politics. But he has made it a point to reemerge on the political stage in the weeks before the election to help Democrats win their campaigns.
This year, in addition to helping Democrats’ campaigns, he has also urged California voters to support Proposition 50, a ballot measure in the state which could reshape the congressional map there and give Democrats up to five seats in the House.
“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” Obama said in an ad appearing in the state. “Democracy is on the ballot.”
He has also been increasingly outspoken on President Trump and his administration’s policies, and the efforts to weaken democracy.
“I think there is no doubt that a lot of the norms, civic habits, expectations, institutional guardrails that we had, that we took for granted for our democracy, have been weakened deliberately,” Obama told Marc Maron, on the final episode of the comedian’s podcast.
The former president’s allies say he, more than anyone, understands the stakes in next week’s elections, and that’s why he has been increasingly vocal in recent weeks.
He is growing worried, allies say, about Trump’s directives and is no longer convinced that the nation can survive another three years of the current administration’s policies.
“He sees what’s happening and he is distraught, to put it lightly,” one ally to the former president said.
Still, while Democrats say no one can get out the vote more than Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, they are realistic about their limitations.
“The more we move away from the Obama presidency, the less muscle he has to push,” said one Democratic strategist. “It’s just the reality. We saw that with President Clinton and we’re seeing it now with Obama.”
The strategist pointed to the 2024 election cycle and how his endorsements of some candidates — including former Vice President Harris — didn’t matter in the end.
“And that’s with all the buzz around his speech at the convention, and all the rallies in the final days,” the strategist said. “In the end, no one cares about the surrogates. They care about the candidates themselves.”
Rocha agreed with that sentiment.
“In the multimedia world we’re living in, there is just less and less that endorsements and last minute rallies can do for a campaign overall,” he said.
