Obama intensifies fundraising and campaign visits as Democrats face tight Senate races
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Former President Barack Obama increased his midterm involvement, raising $3.6 million at a DSCC event and touring key states to support Democratic candidates amid closely contested Senate contests.
Former President Barack Obama stepped up his midterm election efforts this week, raising $3.6 million at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Virginia and bringing the total amount his office has contributed to party committees this cycle to $13.6 million. He warned donors that the Senate map now includes states such as Texas, Kansas and Nebraska, describing the outlook as "on the razor's edge" and emphasizing that none of the races are guaranteed.
"I don’t want anybody to think this is a sure thing. It’s not," Obama said alongside Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a DSCC vice chair. "We could end up, all these races that are showing we’ve got a two- or three-point lead or it’s a toss-up, we could end up losing all of them by two points."
Obama’s activities extend beyond fundraising. In the past two days he appeared in endorsement videos for gubernatorial candidates Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania), Keisha Lance Bottoms (Georgia), Deb Haaland (New Mexico) and David Crowley (Wisconsin), as well as Senate candidates Jon Ossoff (Georgia) and Troy Jackson (Maine). The Democratic National Committee launched a six-figure digital ad buy featuring Obama urging voters to get involved.
The former president also campaigned in Texas with Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa, and appeared in an Iowa ad with Senate candidate Josh Turek. He is slated to travel to Michigan to support Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson.
During the Virginia event Obama defended the Democratic Party’s ideological breadth, noting that candidates like El-Sayed advocate for a higher minimum wage and universal health care, policies he compared to those of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He praised Turek for focusing on farmers affected by tariffs and the Iran conflict, and advised that politics begins when people feel seen.
A recent NBC News poll showed 43 % of respondents would be more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Obama, compared with 30 % for a Trump endorsement, indicating the former president’s continued influence among Democratic voters.