Former US President Barack Obama has been campaigning for election candidates. Photo / Melina Mara, The Washington Post
Democrats turned to former President Barack Obama to help deliver their closing pitches before Wednesday’s elections in the United States.
Republicans appealed to voters with US President Donald Trump notably absent from the campaign trail.
Marquee elections include: the mayoral election in New York; two races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey; and a Democrat-backed ballot proposition in California intended to counter likely Republican gains in House seats as a result of redistricting.
Voters are going to the ballot box one year since Trump was elected to the presidency for a second term.
Democrats, who hold the advantage in many of the major races, are hoping the election delivers a decisive rebuke of Trump’s policies.
They activated Obama, one of the party’s biggest names, to headline a pair of campaign rallies today for Democratic candidates Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey.
Obama has been a go-to choice to energise the Democratic base and make the closing argument for their party’s candidates ahead of election day.
Obama, who was last in office in 2017, has been working with the party to counter Trump’s agenda, serving as a continued leader for Democrats in the wake of a 2024 electoral defeat that has left the party searching for a new standard-bearer.
During a campaign rally for Spanberger in Virginia, Obama focused on the effects of what he framed as the Trump Administration’s abuse of executive power, pointing to the President’s persecution of his perceived enemies and his surge of National Guard troops to US cities.
“Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” Obama told rallygoers at Norfolk’s Chartway Arena, before he headed to New Jersey to help draw voters for a much-tighter race.
Spanberger has largely campaigned on her career experience and bipartisan efforts in Congress, but Obama called on voters to use the Virginia election to signal to Trump and Republicans that their actions were hurting democracy and working Americans.
Voters who supported Trump in 2024, Obama contended, “were understandably frustrated with inflation and gas prices and the difficulty of affording a home and worries about their children’s future”.
“Now, nine months later, you have got to ask yourself, has any of that gotten better? Is the economy working better for you?” Obama asked. “Because it sure has gotten better for Trump and his family.”
Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney-general, was one of several Virginia Democrats who also spoke at the Norfolk rally.
Support for Jones has tumbled among Virginia voters in the wake of a scandal over some of Jones’ text exchanges.
Jones texted a state lawmaker in 2022 describing a hypothetical scenario of shooting the Republican speaker of the Virginia House and discussing urinating on the future graves of other political opponents.
Jones apologised after reports about the texts became public, but the down ballot scandal has been a distraction to Democrats.
Ahead of the Spanberger rally, Obama made a surprise call to another Democrat: New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
On the call, which lasted about 30 minutes, the former President spoke admiringly about how Mamdani has run his campaign and offered to be a sounding board for Mamdani should he be elected, two sources familiar with the discussion confirmed.
The pair also discussed early plans to meet in person in Washington.
Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said in a statement that the Democratic mayoral candidate “appreciated President Obama’s words of support and their conversation on the importance of bringing a new kind of politics to our city”.
The New York Times reported on the call.
Though Obama has not endorsed a candidate in the mayoral race - part of his general practice is to avoid intervening in municipal races - the private call of support for Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is notable given intraparty hesitations over his candidacy.
Mamdani emerged victorious in the Democratic mayoral primary this summer after facing off against two seasoned candidates - Andrew Cuomo, who previously served as the state’s governor, and incumbent New York Mayor Eric Adams. He’s also the current front-runner in general election polls.
However, Democratic Party establishment figures have been slow to endorse him, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) has not said whether he will vote for Mamdani at all.
Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, spent the day at get-out-the-vote rallies, pulling up to his events in a bus emblazoned with the words “Let’s fix New Jersey!”
“Have you seen the most recent polls?” he asked the crowd in Fairfield, New Jersey, alluding to the unusually close race between himself and Sherrill.
Scattered throughout the staunchly Republican audience were homages to Trump, who has endorsed Ciattarelli. A few people wore red Maga hats.
But Ciattarelli has tried to highlight state issues and dissatisfaction with Democratic leadership in Trenton. He accused Sherrill of basing her campaign on her “hatred of Trump”.
“If you get a flat tyre today, it’s President Trump’s fault,” Ciattarelli joked. “There is nothing she won’t blame on the President.”
In Virginia, Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears planned to wrap a whirlwind day by headlining the party’s “Commonsense, Not Nonsense” rally at a conservative Christian college in the exurbs of Washington DC.
She has been running much further behind in the purple state, but Earle-Sears has nonetheless embraced the President, though he has not officially endorsed her.
She has been emphasising culture war issues, railing against transgender students in schools, undocumented immigrants, and diversity programmes at universities and state agencies.
The Republican lieutenant governor hopeful, John Reid, has often campaigned separately from Earle-Sears but will take the stage with her at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville.
Trump lost all three of his presidential campaigns in Virginia, which has been disproportionately hit by his second-term cuts to the federal workforce.
Trump has done little public campaigning in the topline races where Democrats are using his unpopularity against him, keeping a distance from some GOP candidates and signalling some pessimism about Wednesday’s elections.
In Virginia, Trump has reserved his explicit support for just one statewide candidate, Attorney-General Jason Miyares, who is viewed as the likeliest candidate on the GOP ticket to win.
Trump has also endorsed Ciattarelli in New Jersey, where the Republican candidate is aiming to strike a balance in a state where the President’s approval rating is underwater.
As rallies took place, Trump was spending time at Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Florida.
Trump posted several times on social media, but none of the posts mentioned support for any of the Republican candidates.
Democratic candidates in several top races are heading into election day with a polling advantage.
Spanberger continues to hold a 12-point lead over Earle-Sears in the latest Washington Post-Schar School poll of the gubernatorial contest.
Polls also indicate that Mamdani maintains a lead in the race, but that advantage has narrowed in recent weeks.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted from October 23-27 found that 43% of likely New York City voters supported Mamdani and 33% supported Cuomo. The poll, which surveyed 911 likely voters, showed Sliwa with 14% support.
The margin for Sherrill is narrower, with most polls showing Sherrill ahead statewide by single digits.
- Hannah Knowles, Erin Cox, Sarah Ellison and Katie Tarrant contributed to this report.
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