Former U.S. president Barack Obama will address the crowd at the Democratic National Convention tonight, weeks after he allegedly played a pivotal role in President Joe Biden’s exit from the race and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
He’ll make his case for Harris. But the former president’s speech might also indicate how he views his current position as an elder statesman of the Democratic Party.
Aides say Obama still wields enormous influence over party politics while maintaining popularity and cultural cachet with voters.
But his record was frequently cited as a mark on Biden during the 2020 presidential election, with candidates criticizing the Obama-Biden administration’s record on trade, immigration and health care during a blistering primary debate.
As Obama takes the stage Tuesday night in Chicago, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are scheduled to hold a rally in Milwaukee, on the same stage where Republican rival Donald Trump accepted his party’s presidential nomination last month.
Kuh-MAHL-uh? CAM-el-uh? No, that’s not right. Here’s how you pronounce Kamala Harris’s name — and why some political figures might intentionally mispronounce it.
‘The living legacy of our party’
The Harris campaign has in some ways sought to model itself after Obama’s formula. U.S. media has compared the fervour and excitement around Harris to the frenzy that propelled Obama to the presidency in 2008 and then to re-election in 2012.
Kenny Nguyen, a 29-year-old delegate attending the DNC, voted for Obama that year, the first time he’d voted in a presidential election.
Today, he’s a city councillor in Broomfield, Colo.
“I think Barack Obama is the living legacy of our party,” he told CBC News. “He was the first African-American president. He’s everything that our party and country should strive to be.”
Nguyen likened the energy around Harris’s campaign to that of Obama’s when he first ran in 2008.
“He was the man who inspired me to run for office. Because of him, I started my career in politics,” he said.
Harris campaign taps Obama staffers
Harris is looking to tap into some of that energizing power of the Obama legacy. She has recently rounded out her campaign team with several high-profile senior strategists from the Obama era, including his former campaign manager and senior aide David Plouffe, who joined the Harris campaign as a senior adviser on strategy.
She’s also leaned into pop cultural and internet references to reach younger voters. Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed the iconic “Hope” poster art that became a symbol of Obama’s campaign in 2008, has created a similar one of Harris, with the word “Forward.”
Obama will be in his political hometown of Chicago to deliver the address. Though they didn’t immediately endorse her, the former president and former first lady Michelle Obama gave Harris their blessing a few days after she announced her run.
“We look forward to watching her unite our party and our country around a vision for a brighter, fairer, more prosperous future,” the statement said, noting that the Obamas have known Harris for over 20 years.
Harris, after all, risked her own political capital when she backed then junior senator Obama in his bid for the presidency in 2008 when most of the party establishment backed Hillary Clinton.
“She was an early supporter of his, and he was an early admirer of hers, without question,” David Axelrod, a longtime Obama adviser, told Reuters.
“He will not be talking about someone he doesn’t know.”
U.S. Vice-President and Democratic party presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on the first night of the party convention in Chicago, thanking President Joe Biden and telling the crowd, ‘We are moving forward.’