Obama returns to campaign stage to encourage voters
RICHMOND, Va. — Returning to the campaign trail nine months after he left the presidency, Barack Obama laced into Donald Trump’s presidency as dismantling the gains of his two terms in office and taking America backward.
Obama did not utter Trump’s name during his speech at a rally in Newark for Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey. But his target was clear.
Obama suggested the New Jersey governor’s race in November would serve as a correction from last year’s Republican presidential victory.
“What we can’t have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before, that dates back centuries,” he said. “Some of the politics we see now we thought we’d put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back. This is the 21st century, not the 19th century. Come on.”
Democratic victories in governor’s races next month will send an international message to allies unnerved by the Trump presidency, he suggested.
“Not only will you move New Jersey forward, but you can send a message to the country and send a message to the world that we are rejecting the politics of division, we are rejecting the politics of fear, and we are embracing a politics that says everybody counts, a politics that says everybody deserves a chance,” he said.
After his speech on behalf of Murphy, who served as Obama’s first ambassador to Germany, Obama planned to appear at a rally in Richmond, Va., for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam. Murphy has held a wide lead in polling leading up to the Nov. 7 election, but Northam has led only narrowly.
The dual speeches were part of a rollout that Democrats hope will encourage turnout by the younger and minority voters who flocked to Obama but traditionally have spurned off-year elections. Hours before the president arrived in Richmond, hundreds of supporters lined up for blocks around the convention center where he was to speak.