Despite her repeated claims to have no interest in running for office, former First Lady Michelle Obama continues to be touted as a potential candidate.
And for many Georgia Democrats, she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, are the “face” of the party.
“The Obamas are the face of the Democratic Party. They always will be because former President Obama, as well as first lady Michelle Obama, made a great impact on the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party sort of shifted once they became president,” author and retired educator Dr. Trudi Williams said after attending a get-out-the-vote event in Atlanta on Tuesday.
“She just has so much to offer to society and to the young women,” she added, according to the Washington Examiner.
(Video Credit: Fox29)
Obama appeared as the keynote speaker at the Gateway Center Arena event where she urged attendees to vote early or get to a polling booth in person next Tuesday, emphasizing the importance of every vote. The event was hosted by the When We All Vote organization, which the former first lady founded in 2018.
“I’m astounded by how much coaxing and pleading it takes to get people to recognize how their vote is fundamentally connected to their own self-interest,” Obama said. “Because that’s really what your vote is: It is your chance to tell folks what you want.”
“When you break 12,000 people down across precincts, that’s just four votes per precinct,” she said.
CNN noted: “In 2020, voters of color made up 39% of the Georgia presidential electorate, and Biden won 81% support of that vote. That lopsided margin helped Biden win the state, by fewer than 12,000 votes, even though Trump won 69% among White voters.”
Students at Spelman College, a historically black, women’s liberal arts school in Atlanta, also gushed over the former first lady.
Sophomore Houston Smith sees Michelle and Barack Obama as “the face of the black Democratic Party.”
ROLL CALL Introducing the lineup for our When We All Vote Rally in Atlanta, TOMORROW, October 29.
We are so excited for many of our Co-Chairs and Ambassadors to join to celebrate first-time voters and early voting! Sign up to join us in Atlanta at https://t.co/hlYNa4VWqJ. pic.twitter.com/wiV3Q9N66r
— When We All Vote (@WhenWeAllVote) October 28, 2024
Another sophomore, Gabrielle Pecke, indicated she would have “100%” backed Obama if she had run for president.
“I understand why she didn’t because she constantly said she doesn’t want to. She knows where she’s working best at, and if you don’t have a passion for it, then you won’t do well at it,” she said. “If she ran, I would definitely 100% be behind her. So, of course, I would always love to stand behind a black woman running for president.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in July – while President Joe Biden was still running for re-election – showed Michelle Obama was the “only hypothetical candidate to definitively defeat” former President Donald Trump.
The former first lady has not held back in adding to the incendiary rhetoric against the Republican presidential nominee, attacking Trump at every turn as she stumps for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I hope that you’ll forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon … a known slumlord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse, all of this, while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do, y’all,” she said in Michigan last week while campaigning with Harris.
Smith, who is majoring in comparative women’s studies, is not surprised that Trump supporters dislike Obama.
“Donald Trump is a misogynist at his core. I think that he is also a racist, so it’s very on par for him and his supporters to hate on Michelle Obama,” she said. “This is what it looks like to be a black woman in politics.”
She also believes Mrs. Obama’s decision to stay out of running for office is a positive one.
“When you don’t have the stress of millions and millions of Americans, millions and millions of Americans watching your every move, I think that it kind of takes off some of the weight, and you get to be your true self and who you really are,” Smith said.
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Author: Frieda Powers
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