Barack Obama Joining Harris Campaign Trail In Final Election Stretch: What To Know About His Campaign Strategy

Topline

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign hopes to get a boost as former President Barack Obama sets out to stump for her in swing states, adding a Democratic heavyweight to campaign events with a history of success in grassroots outreach and digital focus.

Key Facts

Obama is headed first to Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, according to Hannah Hankins, a communication director at the Office of President Barack Obama—full details on the Pennsylvania trip and the rest of Obama’s trips have not yet been revealed, but he will continue to hold rallies in battleground states through Election Day, Hankins said.

By joining Harris on the trail, Obama may be resurrecting the “yes, we can” ethos of 2008, when the campaign enlisted supporters “to do the difficult and often socially risky work of having real conversations with friends and neighbors about the election,” Liz McKenna, an assistant professor at Harvard University and political sociologist, told Forbes.

A critical and often overlooked strategy from the Obama campaign was to organize local teams of supporters, rather than paid canvassers or out-of-state volunteers, to do the majority of in-person “get out the vote” McKenna said.

Sophisticated targeting and digital tactics, now standard practice, were another pioneering strategy in the 2008 Obama campaign, Steve Caplan, an advertising expert and adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California, told Forbes.

The coming Obama rallies may also become a source of content for future Harris advertising that can be amplified by digital media, a tactic used during the Obama campaigns, Caplan said.

How Is Harris’ Campaign Similar To Obama’s?

Harris’ campaign has hired key Obama pollsters, speechwriters, aides, strategists and advisers like David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager; Stephanie Cutter, a former deputy campaign manager and strategist; and Mitch Stewart, an organizing operative, among others. The two politicians differ, but the buzz around Harris’ campaign compares to Obama’s 2008 campaign by promoting a positive outlook, Jamal Simmons, a former Harris adviser, told Reuters. Simmons is pointing to Harris’ campaign promotion of “a new way forward” with joy and positivity, while Obama’s campaign became associated with hope and change, a winning message considering the sweeping victory it brought. “This is already a sharp contrast to the Clinton 2016 and Biden 2020 campaigns, which did not have the same authentic groundswell of enthusiasm,” McKenna said. Other similarities exist in the campaigns through the mass training events called “Camp Kamala,” reminiscent of “Camp Obama” programs from 2007. But the Harris campaign has operated for far less time, so “Camp Kamala” is focused on last-minute mobilization tactics such as phone calls and door knocking, while the “Camp Obama” events were dayslong sessions held a year before the election to teach about grassroots organizing and leadership, McKenna said. The Harris campaign’s efforts on TikTok and with online jokes reaching younger audiences (even if the memes have often been user-generated and Trump has a substantially larger social media command) garnered significant attention after she launched her campaign in July.

Key Background

After endorsing Harris in July and calling her the successor of his movement and coalition (“Now the torch has been passed,” he said in his Democratic National Convention speech), Obama’s support in fundraising events and content has raised more than $76 million for Harris’ campaign. Obama, in some ways a mentor to Harris, will expand his involvement in campaign efforts in the coming days, according to adviser Eric Schultz, who said the former president plans to “do everything he can” to help Harris win. Even before joining the trail, Obama played a role in Harris’ campaign by offering campaigning advice (occasionally unsolicited), according to reporting by Reuters.

Surprising Fact

Harris and Obama met two decades ago, and Harris went on to support Obama’s 2008 campaign by knocking on doors and helping fundraise before the Iowa caucuses, the BBC reported. Obama later supported Harris during her campaign to be California’s attorney general in 2010 and her Senate bid in 2016.