Photo Credit: Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama is encouraging voters to elect Democratic governors in Virginia and New Jersey in races this Tuesday to rebuke Donald Trump 10 months into his second presidency and a year ahead of midterm elections that could reshape it.
Obama’s appearances Saturday for Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill contrast with Trump spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, leaving Republicans Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia and Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey to campaign for themselves.
At the same time, California advocates made a final push ahead of a statewide referendum over whether to redraw the state’s congressional map in Democrats’ favor. The effort, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is part of a national redistricting battle that began when Trump urged GOP-run states to help him maintain a friendly House majority in 2026.
Obama praised Spanberger and Sherrill, center-left Democrats who helped their party win a U.S. House majority halfway through Trump’s first presidency, as experienced figures who would improve voters’ financial circumstances. Yet Obama, who remains Democrats’ most popular figure nearly nine years removed from the White House, spent much of his time during separate rallies lambasting Trump for “lawlessness and recklessness” and “shambolic” economic policy. Obama urged voters to “set a glorious example for the nation” by rejecting nominees loyal to a president with “autocratic impulses.”
“The stakes are now clear,” Obama said in Virginia. “We don’t need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy. We don’t need to ask ourselves how much more coarse and mean our culture can become. Elections matter, and they matter to you.”
Obama took care not to blame voters who backed Trump in 2024 because of inflation and a roiled economy. But, he asked in New Jersey, “Has any of that gotten better for you?”
