Obama’s winning strategies may continue to shape Democrats’ chances in November now that the former president is joining Harris on the campaign trail.
Topline
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign hopes to get a boost as former President Barack Obama sets out to stump for her in swing states, adding a Democratic heavyweight to campaign events with a history of success in grassroots outreach and digital focus.Key Facts
Obama is headed first to Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, according to Hannah Hankins, a communication director at the Office of President Barack Obama—full details on the Pennsylvania trip and the rest of Obama’s trips have not yet been revealed, but he will continue to hold rallies in battleground states through Election Day, Hankins said.
By joining Harris on the trail, Obama may be resurrecting the “yes, we can” ethos of 2008, when the campaign enlisted supporters “to do the difficult and often socially risky work of having real conversations with friends and neighbors about the election,” Liz McKenna, an assistant professor at Harvard University and political sociologist, told Forbes.
A critical and often overlooked strategy from the Obama campaign was to organize local teams of supporters, rather than paid canvassers or out-of-state volunteers, to do the majority of in-person “get out the vote” McKenna said.
