WASHINGTON — Making his first appearance on the campaign trail since leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama on Thursday avoided directly criticizing President Donald Trump while stumping in New Jersey for the state’s Democratic nominee for governor.
Obama called on voters to reject the “old politics of division … that dates back centuries” in the Nov. 7 election.
“Some of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed,” he told a mostly African-American audience in Newark. “It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century, come on!”
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Obama has rarely spoken publicly about politics since Trump took office, respecting the longstanding omerta usually observed by the tiny club of former Oval Office occupants.
Obama appearance on behalf of Phil Murphy in Newark, and one scheduled later Thursday for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam in Richmond, was designed to energize Democrats and black voters ahead of the two biggest elections of the year.
The affection for Obama in the room was palpable as soon as he hit the stage to chants of “four more years.”
“I refer you both to the Constitution as well as to Michelle Obama to explain why that won’t happen,” he joked.
Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany under Obama, is heavily favored to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Chris Christie. But Obama told the audience to ignore the polls.
“You can’t take this election or any election for granted — I don’t know if you all noticed that,” he said with a smirk, referring to the 2016 presidential race and Trump’s victory. “You’ve got to run through the tape.”
Obama’s second campaign stop of the day will be more consequential.
Northam needs strong turnout from African-American voters to succeed in a tight race against Republican Ed Gillespie.
“Barack Obama coming into Virginia tonight is just very exciting, and he’s gonna energize our voters and just kind of close that loop for us,” Northam told MSNBC earlier in the day.
Hillary Clinton and other Democrats have struggled to keep black voters as energized as they were when Obama was on the ticket. Both Murphy and Northam are white.
Virginia has been trending Democratic since Obama won it in 2008, with the party now controlling both of its Senate seats and all of its statewide offices. But recent polls have concerned Democrats that 2017’s marquee election may be slipping away.