The Obamas to hit the campaign trail with Kamala Harris next week

Vice President Kamala Harris will be bringing out the Democrat heavy-hitters when she campaigns alongside both former President Obama and First Lady Michelle next week as the presidential race is in the dead heat for the final stretch. 

First Harris will be joined by the former president for a rally in Georgia on Thursday, October 24. It will be their first campaign event together with Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Then on Saturday, October 26, the former first lady will appear with the vice president at a rally in Michigan.  

The blockbuster rally next Saturday will be the former first lady’s first in-person campaign event with Harris as well as her first time on the trail in 2024.

October 26 marks the first day of early voting in Michigan. The vice president and former first lady will try to mobilize voters to cast their ballots early in the battleground state where polls show a tight race. 

Meanwhile, early voting in Georgia smashed records when it kicked off earlier this week. More than 600,000 people have already cast ballots in the 2024 election there. 

At their event, Obama and Harris will encourage Georgia voters to go vote ahead of Election Day on November 5. 

Harris will also be in the state for the first time since early in-person voting began for a rally on Saturday in Atlanta.

The former president first hit the campaign trail for Harris with a solo event in Pittsburgh earlier this month, but their get-out-the-vote event next week will be their first campaign appearance together. 

Both the blockbuster joint events with the former president and first lady are seen as a massive opportunity to harness voter enthusiasm ahead of Election Day, according to a senior campaign official given anonymity to discuss the sensitive unannounced campaign activity. 

The Obamas remain perhaps the most beloved leaders in the Democratic party. Some voters had even hoped Michelle would run for president before she ruled it out earlier this year.

While next week will be the first time the former first lady appears on the campaign trail in 2024, her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August stole the show overshadowing even her husband's address.

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Her scathing take down of Donald Trump received thunderous applause from Democrats and reverberated across the internet.

Before she took the stage, it was not clear the former first lady would even make a showing in Chicago. The last time she was there was to memorialize her late mother.

The politics-adverse former first lady even acknowledged she was not sure she was up for the task during her speech, but she said she felt compelled to show up and honor her mom's memory.

With that she delivered a powerful and heartfelt pitch for the vice president. 

'My girl, Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency,' she said in her remarks.

She also told supporters 'let us work like our lives depend on it.'

Since her show-stopping speech, Obama has publicly encouraged people to register to vote across her social media platforms through When We All Vote.

She will headline a separate get-out-the-vote rally with the organization in Atlanta on October 29.  

Meanwhile, the former first lady has also offered high praise for the vice president online including after the September presidential debate when she wrote in a post Harris is the 'only candidate in this race who is ready to be President.'

During the pandemic in 2020, Obama did not hit the campaign for Biden, but she did deliver a video closing argument for him that October. In 2016, she campaigned both solo as well as with Hillary Clinton in person in the final stage of the campaign season.

Ahead of her first campaign appearance with Harris, the former first lady has been keeping busy working with a number of organizations and projects as well as criss-crossing the country promoting her latest book. 

Former President Obama has been much more active in the 2024 election season to date. 

He has been helping raise millions for the presidential race as well as Democrats down ballot with event appearances as well as in ads.

At his first solo 2024 campaign event in Pittsburgh last week, Obama delivered a blistering attack on Trump where he slammed him for 'ranting and the raving about crazy conspiracy theories.' 

He also questioned 'if Donald Trump does not care that a mob might attack his own vice president, do you think he cares about you?' 

The former president has several additional solo campaign stops in the coming days including in Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. 

Next week, he heads to Michigan and Wisconsin to campaign on Tuesday before joining the vice president in person for the first time in Georgia.