After two decades of crossing paths, Obama will deliver a ‘forceful affirmation’ for Harris at the DNC

After two decades of crossing paths, Barack Obama will speak at the Democratic convention on behalf of Kamala Harris, the Party’s newly minted standard-bearer.

If there was one lesson Kamala Harris took from the 2004 Democratic National Convention, it was to fuel up for some long days. “You definitely have to eat your Wheaties,” the then-39-year-old San Francisco district attorney told a crowd in Boston before heading off to what had become the week’s hottest ticket: a party celebrating the breakout keynote speaker, US Senate candidate Barack Obama of Illinois. Now, 20 years later, Obama – who went from star of that convention to the nation’s first Black president in a short four years – will speak on behalf of Harris, the party’s newly minted standard-bearer, delivering a “forceful affirmation that Harris is the right leader for the moment,” an adviser said. Arriving at this moment was indirect, painstaking and awkward for so many Democrats, considering the 2024 convention was long intended to be a celebration of President Joe Biden, Obama’s onetime vice president. Obama is among the party elders whose quiet maneuvering helped Biden realize that Democrats were headed to almost certain defeat if he stayed on the ticket. Harris’s quick ascension to the top of the Democratic Party would have been unlikely without the swift endorsement of Biden – whose own presidency was made possible in no small part by Obama. “She served him, and now he’s serving her and supporting her to be the president,” said Illinois Rep. Jonathan Jackson, who represents much of Chicago’s South Side. “He’s an honorable man, and history will be his best friend.”