Former President Obama, one of the most respected voices in the modern Democratic Party, and former First Lady Michelle Obama officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday to be their party’s White House nominee in the fall.
Citing Harris’ work as a prosecutor, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president, the Obamas said in a statement and video announcing their endorsement that she was the best qualified to take President Biden’s place following his announcement that he was ending his campaign for reelection.
“Kamala has more than a resume. She has the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands. There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people,” the Obamas said in their statement. “At a time when the stakes have never been higher, she gives us all reason to hope.”
The former president had initially been noncommittal following Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he was leaving the race. Obama had said that he believed it was important for Democratic delegates to chart their path for selecting a new nominee — but he was also in regular contact with Harris, as he has been over the more than two decades they have known each other, according to a source familiar with their conversations.
Obama was impressed by Harris’ performance in the days after Biden decided to not pursue reelection, this person said.
The Obamas’ nod is unsurprising given their longtime relationship with Harris — which predates them all becoming household names — and considering Harris’ success in consolidating Democratic support this week.
Harris and Barack Obama met in 2004, when he was a state senator in Illinois and she was the district attorney of San Francisco.
Ahead of the 2008 election, when odds appeared to favor Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, Harris attended the 2007 announcement of his presidential campaign in Springfield, Ill., and later trudged through the snow stumping for him in Iowa before his surprise victory in the state’s caucuses in January 2008.
A few months later, Harris was tapped by Obama’s campaign to speak on his behalf at the California Democratic Convention before the state’s primary. She followed former President Clinton, who spoke on behalf of his wife, then a senator from New York.
“Can you say, ‘Gulp’?” she said at the gathering in San José.
Harris argued that Obama could unite the nation, and likened her own appearance before the state’s delegates to Obama’s candidacy.
“Hasn’t it been about the audacity to do things unimaginable?” she said, prompting his supporters to chant: “Obama! Obama!”
(Hillary Clinton ultimately bested him in California’s primary, but Obama went on to win the nomination and the White House.)
Harris remained close with the then-president as she was elected California’s attorney general and was nicknamed “the female Obama” in political circles.
The relationship caused some controversial headlines when the president described Harris at a 2013 fundraiser as “brilliant,” “dedicated” and “tough,” and then added that Harris was also, “by far, the best-looking attorney general.”
He immediately called her to apologize, saying he had not meant to diminish her accomplishments.
In the 2020 presidential campaign near the end of his second term, Obama did not take a position while Harris, Biden and other Democrats were in a competitive primary. He would endorse Biden, his vice president, that April, one day after Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders threw his own support to Biden after leaving the race.
The former president and Harris have many aides in common. His first attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., is reportedly helping Harris vet potential vice presidential picks, and Jen O’Malley Dillon, an Obama White House deputy chief of staff and 2012 deputy campaign manager, is managing Harris’ campaign.
In their endorsement statement, the Obamas pledged that Harris had their “full support” and that they would work hard to get her elected to the White House.
“We look forward to watching her unite our party and our country around a vision for a brighter, fairer, more prosperous future,” they said. “We’re going to do everything we can to elect Kamala Harris the next President of the United States. And we hope you’ll join us.”
In a nearly minute-long video of the Obamas’ call to Harris on Wednesday announcing their endorsement, she said that their support was meaningful and that she looked forward to campaigning with them.
After Michelle Obama called her “my girl Kamala” and her campaign “historic,” Harris replied: “The words you have spoken and the friendship that you have given over all these years mean more than I can express. So thank you both!”
She added: “And we’re gonna have some fun with this, too, aren’t we?”