Obama to hit trail for Biden, takes to airwaves for Senate Democrats

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Former President Barack Obama speaks at the third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Former President Barack Obama aims to rev up Democrats when he headlines a drive-in car rally Wednesday in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The event, in Philadelphia, will be the former president’s first in-person campaign stop on behalf of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who served for eight years as Obama’s vice president.

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Obama is also starring in new campaign commercials for Democrats locked in key Senate races, as the party hopes to win back the majority in the chamber for the first time in six years.

“In Maine, you’ve got a big responsibility this year. Not only are you choosing who represents you in Washington. You can also determine which party controls the Senate. That’s why I’m proud to endorse Sara Gideon,” the former president says to camera in a new ad for Maine’s House Speaker, who’s challenging longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

Obama, who 12 years ago became the first African American elected president, points to his historic victory in a campaign commercial in South Carolina for Democratic Senate nominee Jaime Harrison, who’s hoping to be the first Black Democrat elected to the Senate from the Palmetto State.

“Now you have the power to make history again by sending Jaime Harrison to the U.S. Senate so he can bring some change to South Carolina,” Obama says of Harrison, who’s challenging GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The former president’s also starring in ads for Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who’s facing a serious challenge from Republican John James, and for Raphael Warnock, the leading Democratic candidate in Georgia’s special Senate election.

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A spokesperson for the former president told Fox News that last week at his office in the nation’s capital, Obama recorded a number of TV, radio, and digital spots for down-ballot candidates.

“While we are facing the most significant presidential election in our lifetimes, President Obama believes voters cannot lose focus on the important down-ballot races that could lead to a Democratic Senate," the spokesperson said. "These candidates will be instrumental in ensuring that a Biden-Harris administration will actually be able to enact the progressive agenda that they’ve set forth. These ads are part of the effort from President Obama to lift up Democratic candidates up and down the ticket."

It’s been nearly four years since the two-term president left the White House, but Obama remains quite popular. He held a 63% favorable rating and 35% unfavorable rating in a Fox News national poll conducted in May.

There was a wide partisan divide, with 93% of Democrats and 57% of independents but just 30% of Repulibcans saying they viewed the former president in a favorable light.