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Former President Barack Obama resumed his campaign trail advocacy at the 11th hour of the 2025 election cycle, rallying support for the pair of Democrat gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey before they successfully defeated their Republican opponents.
“Congratulations to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight. It’s a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win,” Obama posted to X Tuesday as the elections were called and handed Democrats wins in the handful of high-profile elections. “We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter.”
The former president’s star power was touted as likely giving a boost to Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill in the lead-up to Tuesday, though his presence became more of a “side note” as the Trump administration and its economic policies loomed large over both campaigns.
“The further we get away from the Obama presidency, the more people believe that he didn’t get that much accomplished. I don’t think many voters are looking backward, even if Obama may still be an iconic voice inside the party,” former chief counsel to House Judiciary Committee Democrats Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital when asked about Obama’s presence at rallies, saying the president was more of a “side note” amid the campaign.
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Obama endorsed both Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in October in video endorsements touting their leadership, while also taking digs at the Trump administration and Republicans. Obama has long served as the Democratic Party’s campaign closer, zig-zagging states to drum up support in local, state and federal elections since he departed the White House in 2017.
Obama kept that momentum going in 2025, as the party overall still navigates its path forward with new leadership following former Vice President Kamala Harris’ election loss to President Donald Trump.
Epstein said Democrats are currently benefiting from “anti-Trump energy,” noting that “60% of Virginians think the local economy is good but 2/3rds think the country is headed in the wrong direction.”
“This is an extraordinary paradox, and it means people don’t believe Trump is delivering on the economy,” he said. “We still have 3% inflation, and very few voters think their overall economic position is improving.”
The Democrat added that economic and affordability concerns weighed heavily on voters heading to the ballot boxes just a year after electing Trump in an election that also largely focused on the economy and inflation woes from the Biden-era.
“What that should tell Trump is that there’s too much noise and too much distraction, and that he needs to focus on getting the economy into overdrive. This means concluding the trade agreements ASAP, reducing the tariffs, and allowing the economy to soar after the tax cuts in deregulation,” he said.
“First and foremost, the Republicans won because voters trust them more in the economy,” he said of the 2024 election. “They need to prove that this trust was not misplaced. All of this would’ve been exactly the same whether or not Obama showed up.”
In New Jersey, voters reported that the state’s notoriously high taxes and the economy were their top issues heading into the polling stations, according to Fox News Voter Poll data. In Virginia, half of voters reported that the economy was their top issue, more than double the number who reported healthcare as their top concern, according to Fox polling data.
The Virginia and New Jersey campaigns both focused on deriding the Trump administration as taking the U.S. down the wrong path, including both candidates vowing to ease affordability and housing crisis woes on the state level while battling White House policies as they relate to their states. Obama also took part in slamming the Trump administration while making his pitch to voters.
“Virginia’s elections are some of the most important in the country this year. We know Republicans will keep attacking abortion rights and the rights of women. That’s why having the right governor matters, and I’m proud to endorse Abigail Spanberger,” Obama said in an ad endorsing the Virginia Democrat.
“Republican policies are raising costs on working families so (that) billionaires can get massive tax cuts,” he said in another ad endorsing Spanberger.
Just days after releasing the ads, Obama hit the campaign trail in the candidates’ respective states. Obama first traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, Saturday for a Spanberger rally before heading up to New Jersey for a rally in Newark for Sherrill’s candidacy. In both speeches, Obama focused his remarks on deriding the Trump administration and offering the Democrats’ respective elections as an opportunity to vote against Republican and MAGA policies.
“Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” Obama told the Newark audience Saturday.
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He said at both rallies: “Every day, this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and recklessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain craziness.”
Fox News Digital traveled to Newark for the Sherrill rally featuring Obama, with attendees celebrating that they believed Sherrill would win the election while remarking Obama’s presence only helped drive further support. The crowds at the Newark, New Jersey, rally were so large that some supporters were turned away at the door of the rally, which was held at the local community college’s gymnasium.
“I heard Barack Obama was gonna be here. And I love Barack Obama, so I really came out here for that,” one voter, Alexis from South Jersey, told Fox News Digital. “But I do support Mikie, as well.”
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“I want to hear Obama,” another attendee, Robert, from Spring Lake, told Fox Digital ahead of the election. “I think a lot of people want to hear Obama. Wouldn’t it be great to have a message of hope at this point in time?”
Both candidates notched victories over their Republican challengers as part of a blue wave during the 2025 off-year election cycle, which also delivered a win to Socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in another high-profile election.
Former Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is running for the Senate in Kentucky to replace departing longtime Sen. Mitch McConnell, told Fox Digital that Democrats are still in the midst of finding their footing following their 2024 election losses and promoted Obama’s star power to help carry the gubernatorial candidates across the finish line.
“I think when it comes to the Democratic Party, they certainly are trying to figure out what their next steps are, and that means they bring in people from the past and have them be a part of the conversation. We’ve got a standard-bearer within the Republican Party, and we’ve got right now in the White House, that standard-bearer is President Trump,” Cameron told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday.
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“President Trump has got the loudest voice in the party. And you know his voice is much bigger than former President Obama’s,” he said.
Bradley Devlin, politics editor at The Daily Signal, added that “whatever the ‘Obama Bump’ might be—assuming there is one at all,” it would not “make up for the fact that Obama was the one who set the Democrat party down this path of extremism, taking the side of the 20 in 80-20 issues, and creating the fundamentals for the rise of Trump and the resurgence of conservative politics and American values.”
Trump did not physically campaign in New Jersey or Virginia. He endorsed New Jersey Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s candidacy and took part in virtual tele-rallies ahead of the election. Trump additionally did not endorse Virginia Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, and instead promoted Virginia residents vote for GOP Old Dominion State candidates across the board during a tele-rally where the president did not mention Earle-Sears by name.
The president wrote on Truth Social late Tuesday as the election results came in that unspecified pollsters reported that Republicans lost the election because Trump was not physically on the ballot, as well as the ongoing shutdown woes since. Oct. 1.
White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital when asked about the election that “Americans are grappling with affordability because it was Joe Biden and Democrats who created the worst inflation crisis in decades.”
“Putting this inflation crisis behind us has been a Day One priority for President Trump. The Administration’s supply-side economic agenda has already cooled inflation to a 2.5 percent annualized rate – half the average inflation rate under Joe Biden. Americans are paying less for essentials like gas and eggs, and today the Administration inked yet another drug pricing deal to deliver unprecedented healthcare savings for everyday Americans,” Desai continued.
“As President Trump’s agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and energy abundance continues to take effect and real wages continue increasing, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.”
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Obama previously has campaigned in New Jersey during current Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaigns in 2017 and 2021, but has not spent as much time in the state compared to battleground jurisdictions such as Pennsylvania or Wisconsin during federal elections. Obama’s rally in Norfolk, Virginia, marked the first time since 2012 that he campaigned in the city, adding to the fanfare of a former president rallying support for the Democrat ticket.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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