Former President Barack Obama defended his party from Republican attacks on the economy and public safety at a campaign rally for Nevada Democrats on Tuesday night.
The former president has been crisscrossing the country on behalf of Democratic candidates as party leaders fear the issues of inflation and crime will power a Republican red wave on Nov. 8.
Speaking at Cheyenne High School in North Las Vegas, Obama appeared with vulnerable incumbents, chief among them Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Gov. Steve Sisolak, and urged the audience to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket.
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Obama’s speech at times echoed the one he gave in Nevada during the last midterm election cycle, in which he denounced the growing “political darkness” and urged voters it would be “profoundly dangerous” to stay home on Election Day.
But his speech Tuesday night squarely addressed the new political headwinds facing Democrats as the GOP spends tens of millions of dollars on commercials hammering them on the rising cost of gas and food.
“If you watch these ads, Republicans talk about it a lot, but what’s their answer exactly? What is their economic policy?” Obama said.
The former president mocked Republican calls to cut taxes — “That’s their answer to everything” — and said it was Democrats who were focused on helping lower costs for working families.
“The Republican policies — they’re not going to help you, but that’s why Democrats actually have plans to take on drug companies to lower prices, to get the oil industry to clean up its act, to pass laws to make housing more affordable,” he said.
On crime, Obama painted Republicans as uninterested in public safety and touted the gun control legislation Democrats passed earlier this year, with support from a number of Republicans, as well as pandemic relief money that cities are using to fund their police departments.
“Who will fight to keep you and your family safe?” he asked. “Is it going to be the Republican politicians who want to flood our streets with more guns, who actually voted against more resources for police departments?”
The former president’s rally in Nevada, which featured musician John Legend and labor activist Dolores Huerta, follows campaign stops in Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin over the last few days.
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Obama, who has generally avoided the political spotlight since leaving office in 2017, is one of several political heavyweights to hit the trail in the midterm homestretch. Former President Donald Trump has been on a last-minute campaign blitz in support of Republican candidates, while President Joe Biden has made a string of appearances in battleground states.
The three of them will converge on Saturday in Pennsylvania, a state that could determine control of the Senate on Nov. 8. Trump will hold a rally for Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz in LaTrobe, while Obama will appear with Biden in Philadelphia to support the Democrat in that race, John Fetterman. Obama will hold a second rally later that night in Pittsburgh.
