Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the former first lady, will make their first campaign appearances alongside Vice President Kamala Harris next week at rallies in Georgia and Michigan, the Harris campaign announced Friday.
Democrats have long waited to deploy the former first couple as surrogates for Ms. Harris. Nearly eight years after leaving the White House, they remain among the country’s most popular political figures, with high approval ratings from the precise groups of voters Ms. Harris is vying to reach in the campaign’s closing days, including suburban and Black Americans.
Mr. Obama has already emerged for a solo campaign event of his own last week in Pittsburgh, where he admonished some Black men for not being sufficiently supportive of Ms. Harris.
You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses” for not backing her, he told them. “I’ve got a problem with that.”
Mr. Obama will appear with Ms. Harris on Thursday in Georgia. In the coming days, he is also scheduled to hold solo events in Tucson, Ariz.; Las Vegas; Detroit; and Madison, Wis.
Mrs. Obama, whose popularity and disinclination to participate in many political events prompted an array of unfounded Democratic speculation that she, not Ms. Harris, might replace President Biden on the ballot, will join Ms. Harris at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday, Oct. 26, the campaign said.
Mrs. Obama gave a well-reviewed speech in August at the Democratic National Convention, but has not made a public appearance on behalf of Ms. Harris since. At the convention, she implored Democrats to “do something” to help Ms. Harris win the election.
The events are timed for maximal impact. The Michigan stop comes on the first day of statewide early voting
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