Democrats need Barack Obama on the campaign trail

With less than a month to go, President Obama's presence on the trail would be much-welcomed by Democrats within striking distance.

Kevin Walling is a Democratic campaign strategist, former Biden 2020 campaign surrogate, vice president at HGCreative. Follow him on Twitter @KevinPWalling. 

George W. Bush famously said that once he left office, he planned to keep a low profile and not criticize his successors like some former presidents had done. In fact, President Bush has not addressed a Republican convention in-person since he accepted his own re-nomination in 2004. Yet, Barack Obama, who never made a similar pledge, has been quite active in recent years on both the airwaves and campaign trail. He’s spoken at both Democratic national conventions, cut television ads for candidates, and even held rallies just last year for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia.

According to Ballotpedia, since 2018 President Obama has made 609 endorsements of candidates. In 2018, he made the announcements starting on August 1st, endorsing up and down the ballot, including for candidates seeking federal and statewide office and even running for state legislatures.