US: Barack Obama will campaign for Kamala Harris in crucial election states

US: In the run-up to Election Day, former President Barack Obama will be supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in important battleground areas; this action might help her campaign with Black voters because she does not match President Joe Biden’s 2020 statistics.

Starting with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Harris campaign said Obama, who presided over the nation from 2009 to 2017, will tour the nation to inspire voters for the last 27 days before the election.

The news of Obama’s intentions to travel the campaign trail came as surveys revealed Harris, although still garnering the backing of most Black Americans, is trailing behind Biden’s 2020 margins with the important group.

Harris is beating former President Donald Trump by a large margin, CNN’s most recent poll revealed—79 percent to 16 percent. According to the Pew Research Center, Black voters were vital for Biden’s 2020 triumph; 92 percent of them voted for him and 8 percent supported Trump.

Obama, the first Black president of the country, is still well-liked among Democrats. His actions in the last weeks of the campaign could inspire Black voters who are still undecided to support Harris, the first Asian American and the first South Asian American to be elected president.

That might be important because the polls indicate a close contest in swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania could be determined by minute margins.

“Everyone saw the reception 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.

Among Black voters especially, there is great longing for Barack Obama. From that vantage point, Obama’s trip on the campaign road for Harris can only benefit her, particularly as Harris aims to resurrect Obama’s 2008 optimism with a “hope and change” slogan.”

Gift stated, “problem for Harris is that she’s having a harder time conveying that message since she’s herself part of the incumbent government.” “She’s saying it’s time for a new generation at the same time she’s irrevocally linked to what the White House has done for the past four years.”

“President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can help elect Vice President Harris, Governor [Tim] Walz and Democrats across the country,” Obama advisor Eric Schultz said in a press release.

“His objectives are to retake the House of Representatives, hold the U.S. Senate, and win the White House. Now that voting has started, particularly in places with significant elections, our emphasis is on convincing and organizing people. Many of these races are probably going to go to the wire, hence nothing should be taken for granted.”

Obama’s office says that events and fundraising with him had brought in $76 million for the presidential campaign this cycle.

Reportedly involved in a behind-the-scenes campaign to get Biden to drop his reelection candidacy after a poor debate performance, the former president Obama and his wife Michelle Obama backed Harris a few days after the president resigned.

Obama noted in his August Democratic convention address 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.”

“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 have 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,” he said.Leaders chosen by us up and down the ballot will battle for the forward-looking, optimistic America we all aspire for.”