Former President Barack Obama was in Pittsburgh Thursday, where he urged an Oakland crowd to get out the vote for Democrat Kamala Harris. The visit was the former president’s first campaign trail stop of the 2024 election cycle, as polls continue to show a tight race in Pennsylvania between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Speaking to the crowd, Obama said that the last few years, starting with the pandemic, have been hard for Americans, with high prices and other impacts putting a squeeze on working families.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up. I mean, I am the hopey-changey guy. So I understand people feeling frustrated and we can do better," Obama said.
But he painted Trump as out-of-touch and not the choice to lead the country to change, calling him a “bumbling” billionaire “who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down the golden escalator” in 2015 to launch his first campaign.
He called Harris “a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a chance” and declared, “Kamala is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been."
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns believe Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, may be the most pivotal contest in determining the outcome of the Nov. 5 election. Obama carried the state in both of his 2008 and 2012 election victories, before Trump won by just more than 44,000 votes in 2016. President Joe Biden took the state back for Democrats in 2020.
Obama’s was the latest in crisscrossing stops across the commonwealth for both campaigns during the last week. Harris’ Democratic running mate Tim Walz was in Central Pennsylvania last week; former President Donald Trump was in Butler on Saturday, and both Scranton and Reading on Wednesday.
Earlier in the evening, Obama made a surprise stop in East Liberty, where he delivered pastries to a group of Harris-Walz volunteers. During his remarks to that group, the former president took the opportunity to address a perceived lack of enthusiasm for Harris among Black male voters.
Black men are traditionally one of the most consistently Democratic leaning demographics in the nation. This year, however, both major parties view Black men, especially those under the age of 40, as attainable voters.
“I'm going to go ahead and just, say, speak some truths,” Obama said. “Based on reports I'm getting from campaigns and communities … we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running.”
Obama said that it “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” and that he wanted to speak directly to Black men.
“When you have a choice that is this clear, where, on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you, went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences,” Obama said. “ … And on the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person.”
“And you are thinking about sitting out?” he said.
Democrats have deployed Obama, one of the party’s most popular and high-profile surrogates, as the 2024 election has clearly entered its endgame. Mail-in ballots have already been sent out in Allegheny County, and the Harris campaign is working to energize its Democratic supporters and woo to their side what few undecided voters remain.
More than 1.5 million Pennsylvania voters have already requested an absentee ballot and nearly one in every six has already been returned, according to data collected by The New York Times. One in four Democrats and one in eight Republicans in Pennsylvania have requested an absentee ballot.
Prior to Thursday, Obama’s highest profile 2024 campaign activity came during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The former president’s appearance also aimed to bolster the reelection campaign of Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who introduced and appeared on stage alongside Obama. Casey is being challenged by Trump-endorsed Republican David McCormick.
The event brought out a large crowd of Democratic supporters from around the Pittsburgh area.
Donna Nelson of Verona is afraid of what a second Donald Trump presidency would bring. She wore a shirt that depicted Kamala Harris in front of the Statue of Liberty with the words, “It’s time to pass the torch.”
“I fear for my democracy. I fear for women's rights. For abortion,” Nelson said. “How can you people in the Republican Party take away a woman's right?”
Dom Randall, a leader of the Young Democrats at Chatham University and a political science major, attended the rally with his aunt and friend. He loves politics, but he said the Obama rally was just his second ever; his first was a recent campaign event featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Pittsburgh.
“I'm just excited to see [Obama] here,” Randall said. “Even if I'm all the way across the room, I'm just excited to see him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
