Former President Barack Obama is wading into three key Senate campaigns, including the battleground race in Michigan, endorsing Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin and starring in a new ad for her as some voters start to receive absentee ballots in the critical state.
Friday marks the first time this election that voters will see a Senate ad from Obama as Democrats try to keep hold of the chamber, where they hold a 51-49 advantage. The former president is also getting involved in blue Maryland and a long-shot race in Florida, with ads backing Democrats Angela Alsobrooks and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, respectively.
In Michigan, Slotkin is running against GOP former Rep. Mike Rogers to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
The new ad, called “Make You Proud,” features Obama underscoring Slotkin’s national security experience before she represented Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. The roughly minute-long ad will appear digitally and on radio stations statewide.
“In the Situation Room, Elissa delivered national security briefings on some of the toughest issues we were dealing with. That’s why I sent Elissa to negotiate on my behalf because she understood when to compromise and when to stand firm,” Obama says in the ad. “And it’s why I nominated her to be an assistant secretary of defense.”
In the final weeks of the campaign season, Obama is also set to record additional ads and robocalls for down-ballot candidates, sign fundraising emails and appear at get-out-the-vote events.
In Maryland, he’s trying to help Democrats shut out former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, who gained cross-partisan popularity during his time in office, from taking a longtime Democratic Senate seat.
“As state’s attorney, she helped cut violent crime in half and in the Senate, Angela will fight for you,” Obama said in the ad, also suggesting that the Maryland seat could determine party control of the Senate.
And in Florida, he’s trying to help Mucarsel-Powell put in play a state that has slid off the battlefield map for Democrats in recent years but was a central battleground before and during the Obama era. His direct-to-camera ad for Mucarsel-Powell highlighted her experience immigrating to the U.S. from Ecuador.
“Debbie grew up under a dictatorship and came to America to find freedom and a chance to do better. She went from working in a doughnut shop for minimum wage to serving in Congress,” Obama said in that ad.
“President Obama believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor Walz and Democrats across the country,” Eric Schultz, Obama’s senior adviser, said in a statement. “His goals are to win the White House, keep the U.S. Senate, and take back the House of Representatives. Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races.”
Most polls of Michigan show Slotkin leading Rogers by a few points, with some indicating slightly larger Democratic leads. It’s one of the closest battlegrounds in the presidential election. Obama won the state twice in 2008 and 2012 before Donald Trump turned it red in 2016. Joe Biden turned it blue once more in 2020.
