Former president Barack Obama endorsed Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden in his race for the White House. This is his first official endorsement. As his vice president of eight years struggled initially before winning a series of primaries in March, Obama remained neutral. Biden was also endorsed by his rival in the Democratic nominating race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
On a livestream on Monday, Biden and Sanders said that they’d be joining forces to shape the Democratic Party’s approach to address six important issues—climate change, criminal justice, the economy, education, health care, and immigration. They said that they would do this by forming joint groups that involved staff from both of their campaigns.
"Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery," Obama said in the video he recorded out of his home in Washington.
Obama "is a uniting partner in helping bridge this party after an intense primary and paving the road ahead", Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
In the video Obama also said, "Right now, we need Americans of goodwill to unite in a great awakening against a politics that too often has been characterised by corruption, carelessness, self-dealing, disinformation, ignorance, and just plain meanness.”
More than three years after leaving the White House, the former president and his spouse Michelle Obama remain beloved figures in the Democratic Party. An endorsement from Obama could help Biden’s candidacy greatly. It gives him access to donors and allies of the former president.
A CNN poll released at the time of Obama’s departure from the office showed more than 70 per cent of voters under the age of 34 viewed him favourably as did 90 per cent of self-described liberals.
Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor and long-time party official said, “Because he is so popular and the comparison between president Trump and Barack Obama is so stark, it will be such a unifying, motivating factor.”
In the 2016 presidential elections, Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.