Whenever Barack Obama steps before a microphone these days, his speeches are a bittersweet reminder to Democrats that their most potent unifying force can only cheer from the sidelines.
On Saturday, the former president campaigned for Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate to become the next governor of Virginia. In 40 riveting minutes, he delivered his most outspoken appraisal of the first nine months of the Trump administration while pointing his fractured – and fractious – party towards the light.
On Tuesday night, the Democrats are hoping its candidates win both the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. They also hope voters approve the Proposition 50 amendment to counteract Republican gerrymandering in California. In New York, socialist Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani is on course to crush his opponent in the city’s mayoral race.
All of these individual wins would give succour to the half of the US electorate whose party has failed to gain traction through the blitzkrieg of executive orders, tariffs and immigration policies of the Trump administration.
People vote in the New York city mayoral election on the last day of early voting at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Meanwhile, the government shutdown goes on while a new CNN poll has Donald Trump’s approval rating dropping to a second-term low of 37 per cent.
“We’ve got a commander in chief who fires decorated officers because he thinks they might be more loyal to the constitution than they are to him,” Obama told the 7,000-strong crowd in Norfolk, Virginia.
“He is deploying the national guard in American cities claiming to stop crime waves that don’t actually exist. We’ve got masked Ice agents pulling up in unmarked vans and grabbing people, including US citizens, off the streets on the suspicion they don’t look like real Americans. We’ve got a [health] secretary who opposes proven science and promotes quack medicine, a top White House aide who calls Democrats – the whole party – domestic extremists. We’ve got some poor labour economist who got fired for accurately reporting bad jobs numbers the president didn’t like. I mean, it’s like every day is Halloween. Except it’s all tricks and no treats.
[ Trump threatens to cut federal funds if Zohran Mamdani wins New York mayoral electionOpens in new window ]
“I will admit it’s worse than even I expected but – I did warn you all,” he continued. “I did! You can run the tape. And by the way, he warned you too. Because he said what he was going to do.”
The problem with having Obama whip up Democratic morale and restore some backbone is that he is too brilliant a performer. Nobody else in US politics has the same oratory command and timing. You may hate what Obama is saying but still find yourself spellbound with the delivery.
Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, watches Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, at a news conference outside City Hall in New York on Monday. Photograph: Vincent Alban/The New York Times
But in New York, Mamdani’s unflappable style of agreeable loquaciousness, good humour and a left-wing manifesto based on rent control and higher taxation of the wealthy has drawn comparisons with Obama.
The signs are that Mamdani, a New York Muslim who emerged from obscurity to obliterate the establishment challenge of Andrew Cuomo, is a once-in-a-generation talent. But his emergence poses a dilemma for the Democratic leadership.
Last week, when House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked in a television interview if he felt Mamdani is the future of his party, he responded: “No.”
Instead, Jeffries pointed to House Democrats as the party’s torchbearers, emphasising their efforts to reclaim the majority in next year’s midterm elections.
Jeffries delivered that “no” hastily. But it stuck, while the other words did not. Informed of Jeffries’ remark as he embarked on a relentless schedule of city appearances over the weekend, Mamdani laughed and said: “Good to know.”
Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, surprised some people with his response when asked if he felt Zohran Mamdani is the future of his party. Photograph: Eric Lee/Bloomberg
Jeffries’ endorsement of Mamdani came late. Senate minority leader and New Yorker Chuck Schumer has withheld endorsement.
The New York Times reported that Obama and Mamdani talked over the phone on Saturday, during which the former president told the candidate his campaign had been “impressive to watch” and that he would act as a “sounding board” in the future. That support was more guarded than the public, glowing endorsement Spanberger received in Virginia.
Mamdani’s rise to prominence offers US president Donald Trump the opportunity to link the Democrats with socialism or “communist” credentials.
In a chary editorial on Tuesday, the Washington Post, noting that Mamdani, born in Uganda, cannot seek a presidential candidacy, depicted him this way: “Mamdani has walked back some of his old positions, but never very convincingly. While he apologised to the NYPD and said he would retain the current mayor’s police commissioner, he recently admitted he hadn’t spoken to her since making the offer. And while he no longer defends eliminationist rhetoric about Jews, he remains fixated with Israel.
[ US elections explained: What’s at stake in state and local pollsOpens in new window ]
“Whenever confronted with his most radical views, the undeniably talented politician simply smiles and pivots to ‘affordability’. The 34-year-old has had only one full-time job outside of politics, working as a counsellor at a non-profit for about a year. His greatest accomplishment before winning the Democratic mayoral primary in June was getting elected to the state assembly. If he wins, he’ll go from leading a paid staff of five to overseeing a $116 billion budget and 300,000 city workers.”
The rapturous support base Mamdani created out of nothing will almost certainly be reflected in a historic mayoral election night in New York. It broadens the voices of influence among the more radical left elements of the party, for which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have become flagbearers. Meanwhile, Obama’s mesmerising turn on the microphone offered Democrats a glimpse of their bright past.
Former US president Barack Obama takes the stage in support of New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill during a rally at Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. Photograph: Bryan Anselm/The New York Times
“A lot of people have asked me recently if I’m surprised the direction the country has taken. And even though I am the hope-and-change guy,” said Obama, pausing at this juncture as the arena broke into applause. “I try to be honest with them. So, I say, yes, there are things I am worried about. I am worried about how quickly democratic rules and norms have been weakened. The stakes are now clear. We don’t need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy.”
It’s nothing different from what Democratic leaders, including Jeffries, have been saying for the past nine months. But as Mamdani knows: it’s how you say it.
