Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Clarkston, Georgia, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
This story was updated on Friday, Oct. 25 at 8:59 a.m.
With 12 days to go in the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris was joined by former President Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Tyler Perry and Spike Lee for a rally in Clarkston on Thursday night that drew more than 20,000 people, according to the campaign.
The rally on a high school football field marked Harris and Obama’s first joint appearance of the campaign, coming as more than 2 million people have voted early in Georgia and polls suggest a tight race in the state, one of seven that will likely determine the election.
“We’ve got a candidate to vote for in this election who will set a good example and do the right thing and leave this country better than she found it,” Obama said. “That is what this election is about.”
Former President Barack Obama appears at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Clarkston, Georgia, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Harris fondly recalled traveling to Springfield, Illinois in 2007 for the launch of Obama’s presidential campaign and then knocking on doors for him in Iowa. At one point, the crowd chanted the iconic refrain from Obama’s campaigns, “Yes we can.”
Nearly a decade since leaving office, Democratic campaigns continue to deploy Obama for the closing pitch in the most closely contested states. A party elder whose ability to fire up a crowd is probably unmatched in the party, Democrats also hope to retain and expand the coalition of young voters, voters of color, women and suburban voters who propelled him to the White House in 2008.
Obama campaigned in Georgia twice during the 2022 midterms. That October, he rallied for Democrats including Stacey Abrams and Sen. Raphael Warnock, returning in December ahead of Warnock’s runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.
Attendees at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Clarkston, Georgia, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
During her speech, which mostly followed her remarks at a rally in Atlanta last Saturday, Harris upbraided Trump for allegedly praising Adolf Hitler. Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly recounted the comments in an interview with The New York Times this week. Trump has denied the allegation.
“Take a moment to think about what that means,” Harris said. “Trump wished he had generals like Hitler’s, who would be loyal to Trump and not to America’s Constitution. This is not 2016 and it is not 2020.”
Filmmaker Tyler Perry, who told the crowd he voted for Harris in Georgia earlier that day, wielded his personal story to draw a contrast with Trump.
“We are all shapes, sizes and colors, but we are one,” Perry said. “It was so important for me to stand with a candidate who understands that we, as America, we are a quilt. And I could never stand with a candidate who wants us to be a sheet.”
At the rally, Springsteen performed three songs, “The Promised Land,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Sprinsteen said that Trump, “does not understand this country, its history and what it means to be deeply American.
Trump campaigned in Gwinnett County on Wednesday, with a lineup packed with celebrities popular on the right, including Tucker Carlson and country singer Jason Aldean.
“A free concert and an Obama visit isn’t going to convince Georgians to vote for another four years of open borders, rising prices and disaster at home and abroad,” Morgan Ackley, Trump’s Georgia communications director, wrote in a statement.
Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Clarkston, Georgia, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Derek Matthews, an Atlanta IT tech in his early thirties, said he came to the Harris rally because he is making an effort to be more engaged in elections this year, with healthcare, inflation and the environment top of mind.
Matthews voted for Obama in 2012, the first time he was eligible to vote in a presidential election, and said he is still a potent messenger.
“I believe to me that his presidency was about hope,” Matthews said. “I think we all kind of see our older uncle in him, there’s a relatability that I have with him as a Black man.”
At a campaign event in Pittsburgh earlier this month, Obama spoke to Black men directly, saying “It is not acceptable,” to see out this election. Some voters said they found the message condescending.
While polls have suggested some softening in support for Harris among Black men, the group still votes overwhelmingly for Democrats. Party leaders, like Warnock, who spoke at the rally, say the idea that Black men voting for Trump in large numbers is overblown.
“Black men are going to be the single strongest cohort turning out for Kamala Harris short of Black women,” said Michael Tyler, the Harris campaign’s communications director and a Georgia native. “I think our responsibility as a campaign is to make sure that we go out and earn every single vote.”
“Sometimes you just need a person to say, ‘get up off your ass and go vote,” Matthews said. “Or at least get involved and understand what’s important to you and who aligns with it.”
