Former U.S. President Barack Obama attends a rally for Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Atlanta, Georgia, US, October 24, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Clarkston: Former President Barack Obama sought to transfer the energy of his political movement to Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally Thursday night outside Atlanta -- their first joint appearance of the campaign -- as he tried to help propel her over the finish line.
"Together, we have a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country," Obama told a crowd of 23,000 people at a high school football stadium in Clarkston, Georgia. "And start building a better and stronger and fairer and more hopeful America."
When Harris took the stage, he lifted up her arm like a prizefighter in celebration. She quickly seemed to try to adopt his mantle, leading the audience, the largest she has drawn since becoming the Democratic nominee, in a chant of "Yes, we can," Obama's 2008 campaign slogan.
"Millions of Americans were energized and inspired not only by Barack Obama's message but by how he leads," Harris said after he ceded the lectern to her. "Seeking to unite rather than separate us."
She proceeded to attack former President Donald Trump as an "unserious" yet dangerous authoritarian who would hurt Americans in their everyday lives even as he undermined the nation's democracy.
This year, the Harris campaign is hoping to use the power of the party's most popular politicians and major celebrities to energize its base voters. Obama and Harris were joined on Thursday by rocker Bruce Springsteen, who played a three-song set with guitar and harmonica before she spoke, accusing Trump of running to be an "American tyrant."
On Friday night in Houston, Harris is set to appear with Beyoncé, one of the world's most popular musicians. On Saturday, she will rally with Michelle Obama in Michigan.
The breadth of Harris' celebrity entertainers Thursday spoke to the coalition she is trying to build. There was Springsteen, who is especially beloved by older, white Americans; actor and comedian Tyler Perry, who is popular with Black women and gave an impassioned speech about growing up in poverty; and prominent Black entertainers including Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, who proudly noted to the crowd that he and Harris share a favorite curse word.
Jake Schneider, the Trump campaign's rapid response director, dismissed their impact on voters, saying that "relying on celebrities is nothing new for the party of Hollywood elites."
Harris and Obama are longtime friends, and she endorsed him over Hillary Clinton in 2007 when she served as the district attorney of San Francisco, bucking most of the Democratic Party establishment.
Georgia is a top battleground state and Atlanta, with a significant Black population, is its biggest driver of Democratic votes. But the vice president's support among Black voters, especially Black men, has been lower than is typical for a Democrat running for president.
This month, Obama suggested sexism was to blame. On Thursday, one of Harris' introducers, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, tried to pour cold water on fears that Black men would support her opponent.
"We're not confused," he said. "We know that this is the man who was held accountable by the Justice Department because he wouldn't even rent apartments to Black people," Warnock said.
In 2020, Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 13,000 votes, the first time a Democrat had carried the state in a presidential election since 1992. His victory -- powered, in part, by demographic shifts and a concerted Democratic effort to reach new voters in the state -- has left the party dreaming of a repeat this fall. But polls show an exceedingly tight race.
Both campaigns have responded by pouring resources into Georgia, where more than 2 million people have already voted. Trump visited Wednesday for the second time in eight days, and Harris' trip Thursday was her second in a week.
As it has elsewhere, Trump's campaign has focused on the economy and immigration in Georgia. As he tries to provoke fear about the increase in migrants crossing the border during much of the Biden administration, the former president has frequently cited the death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who authorities said was killed by an immigrant who had entered the country illegally.
The Harris campaign has emphasized abortion rights as a top issue in Georgia, which bans the procedure in most cases at about six weeks. On the trail, Harris and her allies have told the stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two Georgia women who died after treatment delays that stemmed from the ban, according to reporting by ProPublica.
Now Harris is trying to win the support of moderate independent and Republican voters by blaming Trump for the abortion bans passed in many conservative states.
"In every state in the South, including Georgia, there is a Trump abortion ban," she said Thursday. "Many with no exceptions even for rape or incest."
Although Harris was well received in Clarkston, there were dangers in following Obama, one of the nation's most gifted political orators. As she spoke, some members of the crowd, who had waited for hours in the heat, started trickling toward the exits.