The former president will be campaigning in key swing states to boost the Democratic nominee’s bid for the White House.
Former President Barack Obama will be campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in key battleground states in the run-up to Election Day—a move that could give her campaign a boost with Black voters, as she fails to match President Joe Biden’s 2020 figures.
The Harris campaign said Obama, who served as president from 2009 to 2017, will travel around the country to rally voters for the final 27 days before the election, starting with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
The announcement of Obama’s plans to hit the campaign trail came as polls have shown Harris, while still having the support of the majority of Black voters, is lagging behind Biden’s 2020 margins with the key demographic.
CNN’s latest poll found Harris is leading former President Donald Trump by a wide margin, 79 percent to 16 percent. Black voters were crucial to Biden’s victory in 2020, when 92 percent voted for him and 8 percent backed Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.
Obama, the nation’s first Black president, remains popular with the Democratic base and his efforts in the closing weeks of the campaign could encourage undecided Black voters to turn out for Harris, who would be the first Black woman, the first Asian American and the first South Asian American to be elected president.
