Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh next week, his first foray into the election as a battleground-state surrogate.
The event, according to a senior Harris campaign official, will launch a larger effort by Obama, who intends to ramp up his campaigning for Harris in the final stretch of the election cycle.
“President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor Walz and Democrats across the country,” Eric Schulz, a senior adviser to Obama, said in a statement.
Obama additionally plans to record candidate-specific advertisements and robo-calls for down-ballot races. On Friday, he endorsed Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the Michigan Senate race and cut an advertisement for her just as voters begin receiving absentee ballots in the critical battleground.
Harris and Obama’s relationship spans two decades, with the two first meeting as Obama was seeking election to the Senate in 2004.
Both Barack and Michelle Obama endorsed Harris for president days after she launched her campaign in July, committing then to doing everything they can to get Harris “through this election and into the Oval Office.”
At the Democratic National Convention, the Obamas encouraged Democrats to “do their part” to get Harris elected.
“If we knock on doors and if we make phone calls and if we talk to our friends, if we listen to our neighbors, if we work like we’ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States and Tim Walz as the next vice president of the United States,” he said.
The former first lady said, “Michelle Obama is asking you — no, I’m telling y’all — to do something.”
Michelle Obama is expected to campaign for Harris, as well, most likely focusing her efforts on encouraging voter registration and turnout for Harris, people familiar with the Obamas’ plans have told NBC News.
Though the Pittsburgh stop will be Obama’s first time campaigning for Harris in a battleground state, he headlined a Los Angeles fundraiser for her last month, and he now plans to sign additional fundraising emails for her campaign in the lead-up to the election. Grassroots fundraising content signed by Obama and events featuring him have generated more than $76 million for the campaign this cycle, a second senior Harris campaign official said.
Jillian Frankel contributed.
