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Barack Obama in California to rally Democrats for midterms House push 'Enough is enough': Barack Obama rallies California Democrats
(about 9 hours later)
Barack Obama’s dramatic foray into the midterm election season rolls into California on Saturday, as the former president headlines a rally to stir the Democratic party faithful and boost candidates in seven congressional races seen as key to winning control of the House of Representatives in November. Barack Obama told a rapturous crowd of Democratic party faithful in southern California on Saturday it was time to “kick off the bedroom slippers” and get to work, to ensure the party retakes the House of Representatives after November’s midterm elections.
Having seized the limelight at the University of Illinois on Friday with an electric speech denouncing the divisiveness and resentment of Trump-era politics, Obama will address an invitation-only audience at the Anaheim convention center, a stone’s throw from Disneyland in the vast suburbs between Los Angeles and San Diego. Having seized the limelight with an electric speech in Illinois on Friday in which he denounced the divisiveness and resentment of Trump-era politics, the former president urged campaigners in key California districts to engage with independents and disaffected Republicans to promote a concept of government less cynical and more responsive and accountable to voters.
It is a part of the Golden State that is rapidly ransforming from rock-ribbed Republican to solid Democratic blue thanks to demographic shifts and a marked local distaste for the Trump brand of conservative politics. “I cannot help but feel optimistic,” Obama said, “because if you are doing what you need to do, if you are active, involved, hopeful, optimistic, energized, fearless… I am absolutely confident these candidates are going to win. I am absolutely confident that Washington will start working better.”
Four of the congressional candidates who will share the stage with the former president are fighting for Republican-held seats less than an hour’s drive away. All seven are competing in districts that favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Obama’s sallies drew a response from the vice-president, Mike Pence telling Fox News in an interview to be broadcast in full on Sunday it was “very disappointing to see President Obama break with the tradition of former presidents, and become so political”.
In contrast to Friday’s event in Illinois, when Obama was addressing students and urging them to make themselves heard at the ballot box, the California rally will be aimed primarily at Democratic operatives and their key supporters. Despite some clamor for tickets after the event was announced two days ago, the event is closed to the public. “The truth,” Pence claimed, was that “the American people in 2016 rejected the policy and direction of Barack Obama when they elected President Donald Trump.”
The former president remains broadly popular in California and has just had a street named after him in an up-and-coming, historically African American section of Los Angeles. While he visited frequently, both as a candidate and as president – Los Angeles in particular grew to fear the “Obamajams” his motorcade would invariably create on the freeways – he usually came for fundraisers and never held a major public rally because electoral logic tended to draw his attention elsewhere. Obama’s Saturday appearance was an invitation-only affair at the Anaheim Convention Center, a stone’s throw from Disneyland and barely half an hour’s drive from four of the Republican-held suburban districts the Democrats are most anxious to win in November.
As Obama said in Illinois, though: “This moment really is different. The stakes really are higher.” And California, for once, is front and centre in the struggle to turn the House back to Democratic control for the first time in eight years. Obama spoke to supporters and campaign staff for seven candidates in all – each running in a district with a Republican incumbent but which voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump.
The two most powerful incumbent Republicans in the contested districts – Darrell Issa, a former House oversight committee chair, and Ed Royce, chair of the foreign affairs committee – are retiring. Their seats are seen as particularly ripe for the taking. Where there’s a vacuum in our democracy, when we’re not participating … other voices fill the void
Also seen as particularly vulnerable is Dana Rohrabacher, known for his close ties to Russia, who was recently featured in Sacha Baron Cohen’s TV show Who Is America? speaking in favor of arming schoolchildren. Rohrabacher’s opponent, Harley Rouda, took the opportunity to paint Rohrabacher as both gullible and extreme. Rohrabacher countered that the show was nothing but a “sick fraud”. “The stakes are high in this election,” Obama said. “If we don’t step up, things can get worse. Where there’s a vacuum in our democracy, when we’re not participating, when we’re not stepping up … other voices fill the void.”
Democratic operatives believe they’ll need to win at least four of the seven seats if they are to stand a chance of reaching the net gain of 23 seats they need to take control of the House. Winning all seven appears eminently possible, and in a particularly good showing might extend that to three or four more seats in California currently scored as leaning Republican. He touched on policy issues likely to be central to many California campaigns – healthcare, education, a living wage, financial solvency for retirees, global warming and the integrity of California’s natural beauties. But he said the most important thing was to reaffirm the country’s shared values and bring people together.
What haunts party leaders, though, is the historically poor showing of rank-and-file Democrats in midterm elections. While they are seeing evidence of far greater motivation than usual among their supporters, as well as a surge of new candidates for office, they will be looking to Obama and other Democratic stars to keep the faithful laser-focused on the task at hand – and reach out to disaffected Republicans and independents while they are at it. “There’s no set of issues we can’t solve if we’re working together and we’re true to traditions that are best in America,” he said. “People are saying, Enough is enough, we’re going to kick off bedroom slippers, we’re putting on our marching shoes.’”
Obama’s message in Illinois seemed designed to straddle the twin aims of motivating the base and appealing to a saner, more inclusive, less divisive style of politics. He is expecting to carry that message over as his campaign tour continues, first in California and then in Ohio. Democratic operatives believe they need to win at least four of the seven races showcased at the rally if they are to stand a chance of attaining the 23-seat net gain they need to take back the House. The seven include seats being vacated by two powerful but retiring Republicans – Darrell Issa, a former House oversight committee chair, and Ed Royce, chair of the foreign affairs Committee – that are viewed as particularly ripe for the taking.
Also seen as particularly vulnerable is Dana Rohrabacher, known for his close ties to Russia. He was recently featured in Sacha Baron Cohen’s TV show Who is America? speaking out in favor of arming schoolchildren. Rohrabacher’s opponent, Harley Rouda, took the opportunity to paint Rohrabacher as both gullible and extreme. Rohrabacher countered that the show was nothing but a “sick fraud”.
Winning all seven seats appears eminently possible; a particularly good showing might extend to three or four more seats in the Golden State currently scored as leaning Republican.
Greater stretches would be seats with problematic incumbents such as Duncan Hunter, a San Diego-area representative currently under indictment on corruption charges, and Devin Nunes, the controversial chair of the House intelligence committee who is seen as an apologist for Trump who has actively resisted attempts to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Obama reminisced about two previous visits to Anaheim, one a trip to Disneyland as an 11-year-old and another as a student when he wandered into the theme park after a Kool & the Gang concert and was thrown out for smoking. Back then, Anaheim and surrounding Orange county was one of the most conservative areas in the country.
Now, changing demographics and a distaste for Trump’s brand of conservative politics are rapidly turning the county blue. Obama said it was not enough to rely on shifting tribal allegiances: candidates and their supporters needed to reach across the political spectrum.
“I want you to talk to independents,” he said. “I want to reach out even to some Republicans, who harken back to the values of a guy called Abraham Lincoln … who say to themselves, ‘I don’t recognise what’s going on in Washington right now, that’s not what I believe. That’s not who we are as a people, as a country.’”
The crowd cheered and hollered, breaking into periodic chants of Obama’s presidential campaign slogan: “Yes we can! Yes we can!”
“Are you ready to get to work?” the former president asked three times, in a rousing crescendo. The answer each time: a resounding yes.
Barack ObamaBarack Obama
DemocratsDemocrats
US politicsUS politics
US midterms 2018US midterms 2018
CaliforniaCalifornia
House of RepresentativesHouse of Representatives
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