Former United States President Barack Obama is using his influence in the election campaign. Photo / AP
Former United States President Barack Obama helped raise a record-breaking $7.6 million ($11.7m) from more than 175,000 individual donors ahead of his first fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
"I'm here to say that help is on the way if we do the work," Obama said during the virtual fundraiser. "Because there's nobody that I trust more to be able to heal this country and get it back on track than my dear friend Joe Biden."
The small-dollar fundraiser today offered a fresh test of Obama's ability to transfer his popularity to Biden, his former vice-president who is now seeking the White House on his own.
It was a kickoff of what Obama's team says will likely be a busy schedule heading into the northern autumn, as he looks to help elect not just Biden but Democrats running for House and Senate.
The latest: Despite poll worker crunch, Kentucky voters poised to break turnout records as they embrace mail ballots by @AmyEGardner @myhlee @eliseviebeck https://t.co/vEWJ8qEQyY
— Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) June 23, 2020
Obama sometimes struggled to lift other Democratic candidates while he was in the White House, notably losing control of the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.
But in the era of President Donald Trump, Democrats believe Obama's appeal, especially among black and younger voters, can help boost energy for Biden.
"There's two groups of voters that Biden needs to move," said Dan Pfeiffer, former White House communications director.
"You have the four million Obama 2012 voters that sat out in '16, Obama obviously has cache with them. And you have to persuade some number of voters who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and either Trump or a third party candidate in 2016, and Obama obviously is very, very high-performing with those as well."
Joe Biden's campaign agrees to 3 debates with Donald Trump and slams the push for more debates as a "distraction" https://t.co/SoobrAVGEh pic.twitter.com/xu5tSavhwC
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 23, 2020
Obama endorsed Biden with a video message in April, but kept an otherwise low profile throughout the primary and largely avoided wading into national politics.
In recent weeks, however, he's re-emerged publicly to speak out on policing and the civil unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Some Democrats say that, in the wake of Floyd's killing, Obama's voice as an advocate for Biden and a leader for the party is needed.
"Biden doesn't have the strongest record on criminal justice reform so having Obama there is helpful in reinforcing that issue," said Ben Tulchin, who polled for progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.
"Given what's going on with criminal justice reform and Black Lives Matter, having the first African American president out there publicly backing Biden is extremely helpful."
Joe Biden is facing increased calls to name a woman of color as his running mate. https://t.co/GZMIPY4Fq5
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 23, 2020
But Obama's re-emergence is not without risks for Biden.
For Trump's campaign, it offers an opportunity to resurface some of their favourite political attacks — charges that the Obama Administration's policies undermined the American middle class and US interests abroad.
They believe the focus on Obama will help reinvigorate Trump's base, and remind waffling Trump voters — those considering voting for Biden, or staying home — of their dissatisfaction with the prior administration.
And they see a potential opportunity to drive a wedge between Biden and his base by resurfacing issues from the Obama Administration — like the high rate of deportations — that riled progressives during the Democratic primary.
Trump recently derailed a meeting with his reelection campaign to discuss at length how well he performed on a cognitive screening test https://t.co/uBq6h5pPvW
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 23, 2020
Trump campaign deputy communications director Ali Pardo said that together, Obama and Biden "put 'kids in cages' and failed to stop China from ripping off Americans while overseeing the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression and stagnant wage growth for American workers."
Trump himself has pushed unfounded conspiracy theories about Obama, hoping to taint Biden by association.
Still, Democrats say Obama is eager to take Trump on to defend his legacy in a debate over whose policies have better benefited Americans.
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— sean (@SeanMcElwee) June 23, 2020
"Trump's election just devastated the country and Obama's legacy," Tulchin said. "Beating Trump is important for his legacy and important for the country."
Biden's embrace of Obama during the Democratic primary created some headaches for the former vice-president within his own party as well.
Biden was criticised by some opponents as too focused on returning to the status quo of the Obama years at a time when the progressive base of the party was clamouring for significant structural change.
Obama says he thinks the movement now is bigger than the '60s: "I know enough about history to say what's happening now is so much wider spread and the breadth of young people who are getting involved, the sophistication they're bringing to these campaigns for change ..."
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) June 23, 2020
But by the end of the primary contest, at least five candidates — including Sanders — aired ads featuring praise from the former president or photos of the candidate alongside him.
And both Biden and Sanders have made overtures towards progressives, with Biden embracing some of Sanders' policies and Obama praising him by name in his endorsement video for Biden.
But Stephanie Cutter, who served as Obama's 2012 campaign manager, said that if Obama's re-emergence into the campaign raises any further debates about the policies of his administration, he'll be prepared to respond.
"There's nobody better to answer those questions than Obama," she said.
- AP