Former President Barack Obama is joining Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as they campaign during the closing stretch of the 2022 election in the highly contested battleground state of Georgia.
On Friday (October 28), Obama is set to attend a rally hosted by the Georgia Democratic Party for Warnock and Abrams, with early voting underway in the state.
“He’s looking forward to this visit very much. Georgia played a determinative role last cycle and could likely be in the same position two years later,” Obama adviser Eric Schultz said ahead of the event. “The goal is to get out the vote, mobilize people, given the stakes of this year’s elections.”
Obama hopes to use his star power to motivate turnout within the party, especially among young and Black voters.
During the rally, the former president plans to highlight threats to democracy along with economic concerns, arguing that Georgia Democrats will help “get costs under control [while] continuing to create clean energy and high-tech jobs in Georgia and around the country [and] building on the first gun safety legislation in 30 years,” Schultz said. On the contrary, Republicans have “an agenda of cutting taxes for the wealthy, impeaching President Biden, and chasing wild conspiracy theories,” Obama will argue per his advisor.
Warnock, who was first elected in 2020, is currently polling neck and neck with Republican opponent Herschel Walker. In most posts, Abrams slightly trails Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a rematch of the 2018 election.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D) said Obama is hailed as the “forever president” by many Georgia voters and that his star power has “absolutely grown” since his time in office.
“He still has an impact on young people… So we are looking to bring in everyone that we can who can continue to motivate our base, motivate voters, and actually make it plain about what’s at stake in this election,” Williams said.
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