Topline Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign hopes to get a boost as former President Barack Obama sets out to stump for her in swing states, adding a Democratic heavyweight to campaign events with a history of success in grassroots outreach and digital focus.

Former President Obama Joins President Biden At White House To Mark Passage Of The Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 5: (L-R) Vice President [+]

Kamala Harris and Former President Barack Obama attend an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. With then-Vice President Joe Biden by his side, Obama signed 'Obamacare' into law on March 23, 2010.

Key Facts

Obama is headed first to Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, according to Hannah Hankins, a communication director at the Office of President Barack Obama—full details on the Pennsylvania trip and the rest of Obama’s trips have not yet been revealed, but he will continue to hold rallies in battleground states through Election Day, Hankins said.

By joining Harris on the trail, Obama may be resurrecting the “yes, we can” ethos of 2008, when the campaign enlisted supporters “to do the difficult and often socially risky work of having real conversations with friends and neighbors about the election,” Liz McKenna, an assistant professor at Harvard University and political sociologist, told Forbes.

A critical and often overlooked strategy from the Obama campaign was to organize local teams of supporters, rather than paid canvassers or out-of-state volunteers, to do the majority of in-person “get out the vote” McKenna said.

Sophisticated targeting and digital tactics, now standard practice, were another pioneering strategy in the 2008 Obama campaign, Steve Caplan, an advertising expert and adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California, told Forbes.

The coming Obama rallies may also become a source of content for future Harris advertising that can be amplified by digital media, a tactic used during the Obama campaigns, Caplan said.

How Is Harris’ Campaign Similar To Obama’s?

Harris’ campaign has hired key Obama pollsters, speechwriters, aides, strategists and advisers like David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager; Stephanie Cutter, a former deputy campaign manager and strategist; and Mitch Stewart, an organizing operative, among others. The two politicians differ, but the buzz around Harris’ campaign compares to Obama’s 2008 campaign by promoting a positive outlook, Jamal Simmons, a former Harris adviser, told Reuters. Simmons is pointing to Harris’ campaign promotion of “a new way forward” with joy and positivity, while Obama’s campaign became associated with hope and change, a winning message considering the sweeping victory it brought. “This is already a sharp contrast to the Clinton 2016 and Biden 2020 campaigns, which did not have the same authentic groundswell of enthusiasm,” McKenna said. Other similarities exist in the campaigns through the mass training events called “Camp Kamala,” reminiscent of “Camp Obama” programs from 2007. But the Harris campaign has operated for far less time, so “Camp Kamala” is focused on last-minute mobilization tactics such as phone calls and door knocking, while the “Camp Obama” events were dayslong sessions held a year before the election to teach about grassroots organizing and leadership, McKenna said. The Harris campaign’s efforts on TikTok and with online jokes reaching younger audiences (even if the memes have often been user-generated and Trump has a substantially larger social media command) garnered significant attention after she launched her campaign in July.