CHICAGO—Former President Barack Obama endorsed Kamala Harris’s presidential bid at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Aug. 20, adding to the backing offered by Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden.
“The torch has been passed,” Obama said, referring to Biden’s exit from the race in favor of Harris. “Now it’s up to all of us to fight for the America we believe in.”
“America is ready for a new chapter,” Obama said. “America’s ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
With this endorsement and the expected boost from former President Bill Clinton on Aug. 22, the convention also marks the end of an era in which three families—the Clintons, Obamas, and Bidens—have dominated Democratic presidential politics for 35 years.
Obama praised Harris as a tough but compassionate leader with a record of success.
“Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” Obama said. “This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion,”
The former president cited her record as a district attorney and attorney general in prosecuting violent criminals, holding for-profit colleges accountable, and even pressuring Obama and his administration to ensure homeowners received a fair settlement following the 2008 mortgage crisis.
Longstanding Ties
Harris and Obama have been acquainted since at least 2007, when she became an early supporter of his bid for the White House against Sens. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Obama noted that she had knocked on doors in support of his campaign during the Iowa caucuses during the 2008 campaign.Obama later endorsed Harris in her run for California attorney general in 2010. He referred to her as “a dear, dear friend of mine.”
Harris wrote in her memoir “The Truths We Hold” that in 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder called her to say he intended to leave the office and ask if she would like to be considered to replace him. She declined.
When Biden won the 2020 nomination over Harris and others, then selected Harris as his running mate, Obama endorsed them both. When Biden withdrew from the 2024 race a month ago, Obama endorsed Harris as his replacement.
Obama drew an indirect comparison during his remarks.
“I am feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything’s possible,” Obama said, recalling the self-deprecating description he used to introduce himself to America in 2008.
Michelle Obama made a similar allusion in her convention speech earlier in the evening. “Hope is making a comeback,” Michelle Obama said of Harris’s candidacy, recalling the one-word slogan, “Hope,” on a popular poster during the Obama era.
Rallygoers seemed attuned to the comparison as well, at times breaking into the chant, “Yes she can,” a parallel to Obama’s campaign slogan, “Yes we can.”
Others have made the connection between the current moment and Obama’s ascent to the Oval Office.
“I have a 2008 feeling about North Carolina,” the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, said on Aug. 19. “That’s the last time North Carolina voted in a Democrat president, and Barack Obama became very close [to winning again] in 2012.”
As he was wrapping up his 34-minute speech, Obama referred to the polarization in American society and the growing lack of trust.
“But here’s the good news. All across America, in big cities and small towns, away from all the noise, the ties that bind us together are still there,” he said.
End of an Era
“We are writing a new chapter in America’s story,” Clinton said of Harris’s candidacy on Aug. 19, a reminder her campaign represents a turning point for both party and country.Members of the Biden, Clinton, and Obama families have been candidates for president in all but one election since 1988 and have been the Democratic nominee in seven of the last eight contests.
Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1988. Hillary Clinton supported her husband, Bill Clinton, in his successful campaigns in 1992 and 1996. She served as first lady for eight years.
In 2008, Obama, then a first-term senator from Illinois, competed against both Biden and Hillary Clinton for the nomination. Obama clinched the nomination on June 2. Five days later, Clinton conceded and endorsed Obama.
Obama then chose Biden as his running mate and tapped Clinton as Secretary of State.
Biden was considered a likely candidate for the presidency in 2016 but chose not to run, citing the recent death of his son Beau as the deciding factor.
In 2020, Biden was elected president, selecting Harris, a friend of the Obamas and a first-term senator with a growing presence in national politics, as his running mate.
While some draw comparisons between the former president and the current nominee, others point out that Harris is a strong candidate in her own right.
“I think that Vice President Harris is going to be her own huge victory, because she has such a powerful persona,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Epoch Times. “Her policies are what America needs right now, and she has the capacity to inspire the nation, not just for who she is, but what she represents for our future.”
Asked to assess the similarities or differences between Harris and Obama, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told The Epoch Times, “I think she’s her own candidate. I think she’s running her own race, and I think she’s going to win her race on her merits.”
Harris was absent from the convention on Tuesday night, holding a campaign rally in Milwaukee, less than 100 miles away
