Former U.S. President Barack Obama is set to bring his influence to Kamala Harris’s election campaign on Thursday as he works to boost voter turnout in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. America’s first Black president will take the stage in Pittsburgh, a day after Harris’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, held a rally in the key state.
The highly influential Democrat aims to encourage early voting, either in person or by mail, as Harris seeks to secure as many votes as possible in what is shaping up to be a tight race.
On Wednesday, Trump campaigned in Scranton, Pennsylvania—President Joe Biden’s childhood hometown—where he promised to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and criticized Harris’s economic policies. He’s scheduled to visit Detroit, Michigan, another pivotal battleground, on Thursday.
Harris, meanwhile, will be reaching out to Latino voters in Nevada, another swing state. The White House has confirmed she will be kept updated throughout the day on the developments of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida late Wednesday. President Biden warned that Milton could be the “storm of the century.”
Obama’s visit to Pennsylvania marks the first of many stops he will make as he campaigns for Harris over the next month in seven swing states, which are expected to decide the outcome of the 2024 election.
The race remains extremely close between Harris and Trump, both nationally and in key battlegrounds like Pennsylvania. Harris’s campaign is banking on Obama, 63, to energize Black and young voters, which could give her an advantage heading into the November 5 election.
Obama’s key message on Thursday will be to push early voting in this razor-thin contest. Historically, Democrats have leaned more towards early voting, while Trump has consistently attacked any voting method other than in-person on Election Day. He continues to blame mail-in ballots for his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, a result he still refuses to acknowledge.
Donald Trump has sometimes questioned early voting, despite his campaign’s efforts to promote it. In contrast, former President Barack Obama is fully committed to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign. “President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential, and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris,” said Eric Schultz, Obama’s senior advisor, in a statement.
At the Democratic National Convention in August, held in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, both Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama gave enthusiastic speeches endorsing Harris. Obama highlighted Harris — the first woman, Black, and South Asian vice president of the U.S. — as the rightful political successor to his groundbreaking legacy. Leading the crowd in chants of “Yes she can,” a twist on the “Yes he can” mantra from his 2008 campaign, Obama acknowledged that the 2024 election would still be “a tight race in a closely divided country.”
Obama has also been instrumental in fundraising, having helped raise more than $76 million for the Democratic ticket this year. He officially endorsed Harris, 59, after President Joe Biden exited the race in a dramatic decision in July.
