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The Obamas have endorsed Harris, capping a week where Democrats embraced her

Vice President Harris and former President Barack Obama attend a April 5, 2022 White House event marking the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Getty Images North America
Vice President Harris and former President Barack Obama attend a April 5, 2022 White House event marking the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

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Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have thrown their weight behind Vice President Harris' push to become the Democratic nominee in the 2024 election.

The endorsement, announced by her campaign in a video, caps a week where the vast majority of people involved in the Democratic party, including convention delegates, lined up behind Harris after President Biden announced on Sunday that he was abandoning his bid for a second term.

In the video, which appears to be shot from the campaign trail this week, Harris answers a call from the Obamas on her cell.

"We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office," the former president is heard saying.

Since leaving office, Obama has proven to be a fundraising powerhouse for Democrats. He raised more than $25 million for the Biden-Harris campaign at a star-studded fundraiser in New York in March followed by another in Los Angeles in June that raised more than $28 million.

Obama said that Democrats were "gonna be underdogs" in the race and nodded to the need to energize independent voters and young voters.

"We are telling everybody to kick off those bedroom slippers and get off the couch and start knocking on doors and making phone calls," Obama told Harris, according to extended excerpts of the call released by his office.

Michelle Obama told Harris that the "energy" surrounding her new campaign has "really changed the game."

"We've got your back. We have you and Doug's back. It's gonna be a fight. But you know, I think the country is ready for something special," Michelle Obama said.


Copyright 2024 NPR

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Corrected: July 26, 2024 at 3:38 AM AKDT
An earlier photo caption incorrectly identified the date of the ACA event as March 23, 2010. The correct date is April 5, 2022.
Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.