Former President Barack Obama is speaking in Pittsburgh on Thursday on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, and new polling shows he is more favored in the Key Stone State than the Democratic nominee.
A survey by Emerson College Polling/The Hill measured favorability of Harris, Obama and former President Donald Trump. The polling found Obama favored by voters in Pennsylvania more so than the two candidates running for the White House.
Newsweek reached out to Obama’s office as well as Harris’ campaign for comment.
Emerson College and The Hill‘s polling found Obama’s positive favorability at 55 percent in Pennsylvania, compared to Harris’ 48 percent and Trump’s 50 percent. Obama was also seen more favorably than the two candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
In the 2024 battleground states, the poll found a tight race between Harris and Trump. In Arizona, 49 percent of those surveyed said they support Trump and 47 percent Harris. In Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, 49 percent backed Trump, marking a one-point lead over Harris. In Michigan and Wisconsin, 49 percent backed both candidates, and in Nevada, 48 percent backed Harris and 47 percent Trump.
“Trump has held at 49% for several months in Emerson surveys in Wisconsin, raising questions about whether he has hit a ceiling there,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. “With just under four weeks to go, the race remains too close to call in key swing states, all within the margin of error.”
A survey by YouGov between August 9 and August 12 and released on September 30 found that over half of Americans would be likely to vote for Obama if he ran for president now.
YouGov also found in March that Obama’s has a positive favorability among 52.4 percent of voters.
Harris’ clearest path to victory in November is to win the three Blue Wall swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, barring any shock results elsewhere. In this scenario, she would need to win the one Electoral College vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, and polls suggest she is on course to do so.
Obama is set to speak Thursday to 400 people at the University of Pittsburgh’s Fitzgerald Field House, according to local media reporting.
“Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races. Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted,” Obama adviser Eric Schultz said in a statement to POLITICO.
Schultz told NBC that Obama “believes the stakes of this election could not be more consequential and that is why he is doing everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris, Governor Walz and Democrats across the country.”
Obama is set to do additional campaigning for Harris as Election Day nears closer. POLITICO reported that Obama’s work will include issuing additional fundraising emails and direct mail, recording candidate-specific ads, and traveling across the country for coordinated efforts.
Last month, Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held separate fundraisers for Harris in Los Angeles.
Obama has been active in Harris’s campaign since she launched it in July after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. He and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, called Harris to endorse her, a video of which was released that month.
“Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” the former president told Harris.
Obama and Harris first met when the former president was seeking election to the Senate in 2004. A source told CNN Obama has served as a sounding board for Harris for the past 20 years.
At the Democratic National Convention, both Obamas expressed their support for Harris and encouraged Democrats to “do their part” to get her elected.
“Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said of Trump. “It has been a consistent scream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala.”
He also told the crowd “do not boo” Trump but instead go out and vote during the 2024 election.
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