Presidential appeal

Obama’s message to black voters is simple.

“If you don’t vote, that’s a vote for Trump,” said Obama, in an interview Wednesday on the “Steve Harvey Morning Show.”

The president, who has become Clinton’s chief surrogate in appealing to African American voters, added, “If you vote for a third-party candidate who’s got no chance to win, that’s a vote for Trump. So the notion somehow that, ‘Well, you know, I’m not as inspired because Barack and Michelle, they’re not on the ballot this time, and, you know, maybe we kind of take it easy’ — my legacy’s on the ballot. You know, all the work we’ve done over the last eight years is on the ballot.”

Obama has warned before against complacency in the black community.

“I will consider it a personal insult — an insult to my legacy — if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election,” he said at a gala hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus last month.

National and swing state polls show Clinton has strong support among African American voters. Still, as polls narrow in several crucial states, such as Ohio and Florida, Clinton is banking on black voters to help carry those states.

In 2008 and 2012, turnout among African Americans reached all-time highs. Democrats’ challenge this cycle is to replicate that turnout in November with the nation’s first black president absent from the ballot.