ATLANTA – Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama endorsed Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House, giving the vice president the expected but still crucial support of the country’s two most popular Democrats.
The endorsement, announced Friday morning in a video showing Harris accepting a joint phone call from the former first couple, comes as Harris continues to gain momentum as the party’s presumptive nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and endorse his second-in-command against the Republican candidate and former president donald trump.
It also highlights the friendship and potentially historic bond between the nation’s first black president and the first woman, first black woman and first person of Asian descent to serve as vice president, who is now fighting to break down those same barriers in the presidential hierarchy. .
“We called to say that Michelle and I couldn’t be more proud to support you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” the former president told Harris, who appears answering the call while walks behind the scenes. at an event, followed by a Secret Service agent.
Said Michelle Obama: “I can’t take this phone call without telling my girlfriend, Kamala, how proud I am of you.
“This is going to be historic,” she added.
Harris, who has known the Obamas since before her election in 2008, thanked them for their friendship and said she looks forward to “getting there, being on the road” with them in the three-month blitz before Election Day on Nov. 5.
“We’re going to have fun with this too, aren’t we?” Harris said.
The Obamas are perhaps the last Top party figures to support Harris formally – a reflection of the former president’s desire to remain, at least publicly, a party leader operating above the fray. The Obamas remain prodigious fundraising sweepstakes and popular surrogates at major campaign events for Democratic candidates.
According to an Associated Press poll, Harris has already secured public support of the majority of delegates Democratic National Convention, which begins August 19 in Chicago. The Democratic National Committee hopes to hold a virtual nomination vote that, by Aug. 7, would make Harris and a yet-to-be-named running mate the official Democratic ticket.
Biden endorsed Harris an hour after announcing his decision last Sunday to end his campaign amid widespread concerns about the 81-year-old president’s ability to defeat Trump. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader Jim Clyburn, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary State Secretary Hillary Clinton followed them in the following days.
The Obamas, however, tread carefully as Harris secured pledges from delegates, circulated among key Democratic constituencies and raised more than $120 million. The public warning follows how the former president handled the weeks between Biden’s failed debate against Trump and the president’s eventual decision to end his campaign: Obama was a certain presence in party maneuvers, but operated silently.
Barack Obama’s initial statement following Biden’s announcement did not mention Harris. Instead, he spoke generally about finding a candidate to succeed Biden: “I have extraordinary confidence that our party’s leaders will be able to create a process from which a remarkable candidate emerges,” the former president wrote.
Both Obamas campaigned separately for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, including large rallies on the weekends leading up to Election Day. They gave keynote speeches at the 2020 Democratic convention, a virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic. The former president’s speech was especially notable because it revealed a direct attack on Trump as a threat to democracy, an argument that has endured as part of Harris’ campaign.
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