Former President Barack Obama is preparing to campaign for Sen.
Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) as he heads into a runoff election against challenger Herschel Walker, according to multiple sources.
Last month, Obama attended a campaign event for Warnock – who is also a veteran, small businessman and preacher – ahead of the midterm elections.
Warnock was first elected to his seat in the Senate through a runoff election in 2020. Per Ballotpedia, he ran and won against Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who had been appointed to the vacant seat of the late Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson by fellow Republican, Gov. Brian Kemp.
This time, Warnock is facing off against Walker, a Heisman Trophy-winning former NFL player. Although Walker has been embroiled in controversy – including remaining strongly anti-abortion even as news broke that he paid for abortions – support from former President Donald Trump helped him secure votes.
“I think the Walker vote is a, you know, a stick with your party kind of vote,” Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion explained on Audacy’s “The Homestretch” podcast.
“It seems to me, he’s a celebrity who wants to be a politician,” said Obama of Walker in October. “And, we’ve seen how that goes.”
While Trump has been known as a “kingmaker” for Republican candidates in the past, it appears that his influence may be waning. Republicans did not gain as many seats in Congress as expected during the midterms, and another high-profile Trump-backed candidate, Dr. Mehmet Oz, lost in Pennsylvania to Sen.-elect John Fetterman, who Obama supported.
This week, a new poll has found that American voters named Trump, who has announced plans to run for president again in 2024 after losing two years ago, the biggest loser of the 2022 midterm elections.
On the other hand, Obama’s popularity appears strong, even years after leaving office.
At Obama’s lowest point approval rating-wise (shortly after the GOP gained ground in the 2014 midterm elections) it was at 42%. Comparatively, both Trump and current President Joe Biden had an approval rating of 38% around the first midterms season of their presidencies. Obama managed an average approval rating of around 53% during his two terms in office and left with a 58% approval rating.
As of last December, Barack and Michelle Obama were ranked the most popular man and woman in the world for a second year in a row, per YouGov polling. According to the Washington Post, Obama is “the most popular Democratic surrogate.”
The Hill said that Obama is expected to campaign with Warnock on Dec. 1, ahead of Georgia’s runoff election the following week, citing an unnamed source.
“You deserve better, Georgia deserves better,” Obama said last month. You deserve someone who is independent, and who’s gonna go work every day and fight for you. Someone like Rev. Raphael Warnock.”
Democrats have already managed to maintain a majority in the Senate, and a win for Warnock would “allow them to more seamlessly confirm federal judges and also control which bills can come to the Senate floor,” The Hill explained.
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