Former President Barack Obama is planning to hit the campaign trail and fundraise for Democrats for the 2018 election cycle, giving the party access to the Obama’s sprawling political network.
The former president will mobilize his network of roughly 15,000 campaign alumni around the nation to help get out the vote and campaign for Democratic candidates as the party looks to regain control of the House in 2018.
Obama has reportedly already met with Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez and former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Obama won’t hit the campaign trail until the fall, when he will begin headlining fundraisers for down the ballot candidates. The former president is also expected to make campaign stops in states where competitive gubernatorial and senatorial races are happening in conjunction with competitive House races.
When he finally does make an appearance, Democrats will surely be happy to see Obama, who pledged in 2016 that his future political activities would be tied to how active young voters remained after he left office.
Obama is careful not to use President Donald Trump’s name when he makes public appearances, but has made a number of comments regarding certain policies the administration pushed in 2017, like repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Democrats are trailing Republicans in donations by a sizable margin.
GOP candidates and party fundraisers have racked in over $398,000,000 in donations, according to Federal Election Commission data released in early January for the 2018 congressional election cycle. Democrats, on the other hand, have managed to raise only $271,671,258.
Obama is arguably the most successful political fundraiser in history, running a 2008 presidential campaign that completely changed the standard for political fundraising forever. He could provide a much needed boon for Democratic coffers.
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