Obama goes full throttle for Biden
After raising huge sums of cash and cutting ads for his veep, the former president will stump in Joe Biden’s most important swing state.
PHILADELPHIA — There were lots of logical states for Joe Biden to roll out the biggest weapon in his campaign arsenal. But he chose to deploy former President Barack Obama to Pennsylvania for the latter’s first in-person event in 2020, perhaps the clearest sign yet that Biden’s team sees the state as the most important piece of the Electoral College map.
On Wednesday, Obama will hold a drive-in rally in Philadelphia, and he will talk directly to Black voters — and Black men specifically — according to the Biden campaign. The former president is also expected to discuss the importance of making a plan to vote early.
In a presidential election that has seen both candidates lavish attention onto the state, making nonstop visits and pouring tens of millions of dollars into advertising here, the rally serves an important purpose beyond ginning up enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket. It’s an implicit reminder that, of the three Rust Belt states that flipped to Donald Trump in 2016 — the other two being Michigan and Wisconsin — Pennsylvania remains the biggest and most critical to Biden’s chances of victory.
“One, without Pennsylvania, mathematically, the president has no path to 270. And two, it’s a state that is in play but the former president remains intensely popular,” said Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. “His ability to draw attention and energize is certainly unparalleled by any other Democrat.”
The fact that Democrats are using their top campaigner to appeal to Black voters in particular during his first in-person stop this year also underscores how critical African American turnout — particularly in big cities like Philadelphia — is to Biden’s chances. At the same time, it highlights the concerns some Democrats have about whether Biden is doing enough to mobilize the key voting bloc, especially after Black turnout dropped nationwide during the presidential race four years ago.
“We’re going to be the battleground, and I think President Obama’s visit is a reflection of that,” said Democrat Cherelle Parker, the Philadelphia City Council’s majority leader and a local surrogate for the Biden campaign. “His intentions are to remind the Black community, and particularly Black men, that your vote counts, and rest assured that in no way, shape or form are we trying to take it for granted. And it’s important not just to think it, but that is important to acknowledge.”
The POWER Interfaith coalition, a Pennsylvania-based progressive group, commissioned a poll this month, reported first by POLITICO, that found that 72 percent of Black male voters in Philadelphia under the age of 50 are backing Biden. Comparatively, 91 percent of Black voters above 50 years old in the same survey are supporting the Democratic nominee. Among the younger male voters, 14 percent are casting a ballot for Trump and 9 percent are undecided.
“I think they’re worried,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, executive director of POWER Interfaith, of Biden’s campaign. “In the city of Philadelphia, the largest segment of the population is African American of any one group. And when African American males don’t show up, that could certainly be a problem.”
Obama won Pennsylvania twice — including by a striking 10 points in 2008 — in part because of through-the-roof enthusiasm among African American voters. In some wards in Philadelphia with large Black populations, Obama captured more than 99 percent of the vote.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton did not suffer a significant decrease in turnout in Philadelphia — unlike in Detroit and Milwaukee, where lower-than-expected turnout played a role in her respective defeats in Michigan and Wisconsin. She received 584,000 votes from Philadelphia, only about 5,000 fewer ballots than Obama won in 2012. Still, media reports found that there was some level of drop-off in majority-Black wards in the city.
Obama is expected to talk to Black voters about the importance of voting and the power they have to turn Pennsylvania blue, according to a Biden aide. Biden, who is debating Trump in Nashville on Thursday, is not attending the Pennsylvania visit with Obama.