Obama warns Georgia voters of their ‘last, best chance’ to rebuke Trump

Former President Barack Obama stormed back into Georgia’s political fray Wednesday with blistering attacks on President Donald Trump, casting next week’s midterm election as a “last, best chance” to rein in his power.

Before a roaring, foot-stomping crowd of thousands at the Arena at Southlake in Morrow, Obama sought to energize Democrats fighting to secure U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s reelection and help former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms flip the Governor’s Mansion after decades of Republican control.

With just two days of early voting left and Republicans sounding alarms over sluggish turnout, Obama pressed Georgians to elect “serious” Democratic candidates who could wrest power from a “spineless Congress” doing Trump’s bidding.

It was part political revival, part rock concert. Statewide Democratic contenders delivered fiery appeals, recording artist Janelle Monáe brought a bass-thumping performance and the Clark Atlanta University marching band nearly brought down the house.

But there were somber moments, too, as Democratic candidates warned about the stakes of an election that could reshape Georgia’s political landscape.

“We need to start showing the American people who are hungry for real solutions what real leadership looks like, what concrete plans look like to lower costs,” the former president said.

Ossoff revived attacks against his “bigot” opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, and his “pathetic, childlike devotion” to Trump. But the raucous crowd momentarily fell silent as he wondered aloud what he’d tell his young daughter Eva about his efforts to stand up against threats to the environment and the costs of foreign wars.

“Georgia, we can and will reclaim control over our own destiny. We can and will meet our obligations to our children,” he said. “And it begins with victory this fall.”

Bottoms took aim at her opponent, Republican billionaire Rick Jackson, predicting that a surge of Democratic enthusiasm would overcome his more than $200 million in campaign spending and propel her to victory.

“No wannabe dictator and his billionaire sidekick will stop the momentum that we are seeing in our state.”

And she framed the race as a choice between competing loyalties.

“Slick Rick is running to be Trump’s favorite governor, and I’m running to be yours,” she said.

Republicans swung right back, casting Obama as a “washed-up” failure who is too liberal for Georgia in scathing statements that preceded his event.

“President Obama can’t cover up the fact that Keisha Lance Bottoms is a failed mayor who abandoned her city after making it less affordable and less safe,” said Jackson deputy Garrison Douglas.

A turnout push

There’s a reason Obama is campaigning in deep-blue Clayton County, where Democrats will win overwhelmingly. It’s the same reason President Donald Trump headed to a ruby-red part of Middle Georgia on Saturday: Turnout.

Democrats are encouraged by early voting gains across much of metro Atlanta. But participation in the core Democratic counties of Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton has lagged behind the fast-growing suburbs surrounding Atlanta.

And after a strong start, Black voter participation has begun to lose some momentum. Democrats hope Obama can reignite enthusiasm and juice turnout with two full days of early voting left.

Republicans face their own version of a turnout challenge. Vast stretches of rural Georgia have lagged behind their 2022 voting pace, and GOP leaders across the state are loudly warning conservatives they shouldn’t take a victory for granted.

That urgency was on display Saturday in Perry, where Trump rallied supporters for GOP nominees Rick Jackson and Mike Collins while taking credit for plans for a $4.2 billion Audi plant in nearby Fort Valley.

“I am on the ballot, essentially,” Trump told the crowd, urging supporters to vote Republican to keep his economic policies in play.

The two presidents have tangled plenty on the campaign trail. Yet the longtime political adversaries shared an unexpectedly friendly moment at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in January 2025.

Obama has become increasingly active in the midterm campaign, returning to the campaign trail over the weekend with rallies in Ohio and Michigan that included a jab in which he described Trump’s White House makeover as looking like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” The insult infuriated Trump, and Obama returned to it in his Georgia speech.

Obama is no stranger to Georgia. Exactly four years before Wednesday’s visit, he rallied thousands of supporters in College Park for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams.

In 2024, he joined then-Vice President Kamala Harris and Bruce Springsteen for a packed metro Atlanta rally as Democrats fought to keep Georgia in their column.

This year, Harris is following his lead in Georgia, with campaign stops set for Thursday and Friday.

And Obama couldn’t resist reaching back to the “hope and change” message that helped propel him to the White House in 2008.

After a night of blistering attacks, he closed on that more upbeat note, urging voters to move beyond the divisions that have come to define American politics.