Barack and Michelle Obama will join Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for the first time on the campaign trail next week, aiming to provide a powerful boost in the final weeks of the election.
Harris will appear with the former president in Georgia on October 24 and with Michelle Obama in Michigan on October 26, according to a senior Harris campaign official. The specific cities and times in the key swing states have not yet been announced.
It will be the first time the former first lady has campaigned for Harris. She will also headline a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 29, organized by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement group founded by Obama in 2018.
Barack Obama recently campaigned for Harris for the first time, appearing alone in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now the two will unite. And he will make more appearances in Arizona and Nevada on Friday and Saturday, followed by events in Madison, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on October 22, all in the group of crucial swing states that could decide who takes over the White House. in this election.
Early voting begins in Michigan on October 26. In Georgia, early voting began earlier this week, with record turnout.
The Obamas and Harris have a two-decade friendship. They first met when Harris helped organize a fundraiser in San Francisco for Barack Obama’s Senate run in Illinois in 2004, the New York Times reported.
Harris was an early supporter of Obama’s presidential campaign during the closely contested 2008 Democratic presidential primary, and one of the few elected officials in California to back him over Hillary Clinton for the party’s nomination. Obama became America’s first black president and because Clinton failed to defeat Donald Trump in 2016, Harris will become America’s first female president if she wins in November.
Since Biden dropped out of the presidential race in August 2024 and endorsed Harris, Barack Obama has reportedly been a key adviser to her campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to the reporting
