Obama returns to Georgia as Democrats look for a final turnout surge

Former President Barack Obama is returning to Georgia with a familiar assignment: Fire up Democrats when they need him most.

The two-term president will headline a Wednesday rally in Clayton County with Democratic nominee for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, bringing one of the party’s biggest draws to a deep-blue part of metro Atlanta.

Democrats head into the final stretch encouraged by surging turnout in many of their strongholds. But voting hasn’t been as robust in Atlanta’s urban core as in the surrounding suburbs.

Now Democrats hope Obama’s star power can build on those gains, particularly among Black voters and younger Georgians before the three-week early voting period ends Friday.

The stop at the Arena at Southlake comes at a pivotal moment.

Bottoms is in a razor-thin race with Republican billionaire Rick Jackson for governor. Ossoff wants to turn a sizable polling lead over U.S. Rep. Mike Collins into a rout.

Republicans have their own turnout worries. Jackson has warned that rural voters are taking a GOP victory for granted. Vast stretches of South Georgia are reporting lower participation than at the same stage of the 2022 midterms.

At a rally with Jackson on Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp warned that Republicans are “behind in early voting” and acknowledged Democrats’ success in building an early advantage.

“We’ve got a chance the rest of the week because their numbers are starting to play out. They really pushed hard, and they’re motivated, and you’ve got to just tip your cap to them,” he said. “But we can close the gap between now and Friday.”

Republicans have countered by deploying President Donald Trump to a pair of events this month in Republican-friendly territory, though some also worry his visits fired up Democrats, as well.

Now, Democrats are calling in their own political heavyweight.

Obama’s visit follows weekend campaign stops in Ohio and Michigan, where he unleashed searing attacks on Trump and framed the midterms as a chance to hold Republicans accountable.

At his stop in Cleveland, Obama told supporters the midterm vote is “our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration.”

And in Detroit, he said Republicans are relying on stale attacks to portray Democrats as “radicals or Communists or jihadists or the woke police that will come arrest you and force-feed you tofu.”

He added: “We are not going to fall for that.”

A familiar closing act

In Georgia, Obama has become a steady presence in the closing days of nationally watched campaigns.

He staged an election-eve Atlanta rally in November 2020 with Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, a campaign that ended weeks later when both Democrats flipped U.S. Senate seats in runoffs.

He returned on Oct. 28, 2022 — exactly four years before Wednesday’s visit — to stump for Warnock and then-Democratic nominee for governor Stacey Abrams before thousands of supporters in College Park.

And in 2024, he joined then-Vice President Kamala Harris and Bruce Springsteen for a rally-turned-campaign-concert at a packed stadium in Clarkston as Democrats tried to keep Georgia in their fold.

This year, with two days of early voting remaining after Obama’s visit, Democrats are looking to help turn campaign enthusiasm into ballots before time runs out. Democrats praised his ability.

“Georgia continues to be a battleground state,” said state Rep. David Wilkerson, a Cobb County Democrat. “And just like in 2020 and 2022, Obama’s visit is going to help Democrats win.”