MORROW, Ga.—Former President Barack Obama headlined a rally in Morrow, Georgia, on Oct. 28 to boost the state’s Democratic candidates as Georgians have flocked to the polls in record numbers.
He appeared alongside Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor, respectively, who received Obama’s resounding endorsement.
“When you campaign in as many elections as I have, you can tell when an election comes along, it just feels a little different,” Obama said onstage. “An election where people are so ready for something new, so hungry for something better, so sick and tired of being sick and tired that everywhere we go, it feels like change is in the air.”
The former president’s visit to the Peach State comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s appearance at two rallies to boost the Republican contenders: Rep. Mike Collins, who is running for the Senate, and billionaire Rick Jackson, who is vying for the gubernatorial seat.
Georgia has had two Democratic senators since 2021, and the state has been under Republican governorship for 23 years.
Georgia’s first day of early voting, Oct. 13, saw record turnout, eclipsing the previous record by more than 53,000 ballots cast. By Oct. 20, more than 1 million residents had voted. As of publication time, more than 2.3 million ballots had been cast.
“If we’re willing to turn out in big numbers across the state, across this country, if we’re willing to vote for change up and down the ballot, then next election might just mark the moment when we begin to leave our worst impulses behind and start aligning our politics with our highest ideals,” Obama said.
During the rally, the former president spent ample time critiquing the Trump administration on topics such as Iran, foreign policy, tariffs, and prices at the pump.
As a former president, Obama conceded that sometimes there are forces beyond one’s control.
“But that’s not the case here,” he said. “In this case, the administration’s only actions are directly responsible for rising costs. As Jon [Ossoff] described, the current president chose to make a series of bad decisions, the most important of which was to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for and nobody voted for.”
Trump and top administration officials have maintained that the war was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But Obama said he believes that Iran never had a nuclear weapon and was never close to creating one.
Ossoff and Bottoms had similar views.
In her speech, Bottoms addressed artificial intelligence and data centers.
“I believe in protecting our environment, protecting our communities, and bringing down our power bills,” she said. “That is why we will pause construction on new data centers.”
That sparked thunderous cheers, as did one remark in Ossoff’s speech.
He claimed that while the world burns, in “Washington and at Mar-a-Lago, it’s a spectacle of graft unprecedented in American history.”
“The crypto payoffs and the crooked [White House] ballroom, the pay-to-play pardons, and the billions of your tax dollars … never before has so little effort been made to cover up so much corruption,” Ossoff said.
He vowed to bring any individual involved in these alleged schemes before Congress to testify.
Ossoff said this midterm cycle presents an opportunity for Democrats, not just for restoration but for reformation.
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