Barack Obama at a Satursday rally with New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill.Kyle Manna/UNF News/CNP/AP
Where’s Obama, you ask? The better question may be, where’s Trump?
Former President Barack Obama spent Saturday supporting Democratic candidates in three of the most consequential races of this week’s elections. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, spent the weekend partying and golfing at Mar-a-Lago—a reflection of what has been his uncharacteristically reserved approach to Tuesday’s vote.
Obama delivered speeches in support of two congresswomen-turned-gubernatorial candidates: Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. In both, he lauded the candidates, criticized their opponents—former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and current Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, respectively—and characterized votes for the Democrats as acts of resistance against the Trump administration.
“If you meet this moment, you will not just put New Jersey on a better path,” Obama said at the Newark rally for Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor who currently represents the state’s 11th Congressional district. “You will set a glorious example for this nation.” In Norfolk, Virginia, he delivered a similar message about Spanberger, a former CIA officer who served three terms in Congress: “If you believe in that better story of America, don’t sit this one out. Vote. Vote for leaders like Abigail who believe it too. Vote for leaders who care about your freedoms and who will fight for your rights.”
Trump, meanwhile, spent Friday night hosting a Great Gatsby–themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, just hours before tens of millions were set to lose access to food stamps.
Also on Saturday, the former president called New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani—again—to wish him luck on election day and offer to be a “sounding board” in the future, the New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the call. According to the Times:
Mr. Obama said that he was invested in Mr. Mamdani’s success beyond the election on Tuesday. They talked about the challenges of staffing a new administration and building an apparatus capable of delivering on Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of affordability in the city, the people said.
[…]
Mr. Obama spoke admiringly about how Mr. Mamdani has run his campaign, making light of his own past political missteps and noting how few Mr. Mamdani had made under such a bright spotlight.
“Your campaign has been impressive to watch,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Mamdani, according to the people.
According to the Times, Mamdani told Obama that his 2008 speech on race inspired the mayoral candidate’s own recent speech on Islamophobia in response to comments made by his main opponent, ex–New York governor Andrew Cuomo. If he is elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim mayor—a fact that his critics, especially those on the right, have used as the basis for an onslaught of Islamophobic attacks against him for months now. Mamdani and Obama also reportedly discussed meeting in Washington DC at some point in the future.
Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said in a statement to the Times that the candidate “appreciated President Obama’s words of support and their conversation on the importance of bringing a new kind of politics to our city.” The former president first called Mamdani back in June, after his primary upset, the Times reported.
Trump, meanwhile, spent Friday night hosting a Great Gatsby–themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, just hours before tens of millions of low-income Americans were set to lose access to food stamps due to the ongoing government shutdown and Republicans’ refusal to use contingency funds used to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operating in the interim. And on Saturday, Trump golfed and ranted on his Truth Social platform—but made no mention of Tuesday’s elections. While Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in the spring and participated in a telephone rally for him this week, he only voiced support for Earle-Sears last month and has yet to formally endorse her.
Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s activities this weekend and why he has not more strongly backed the Republican candidates. But polls may provide the answer: The Democrat candidates are leading in both Virginia, which is set to elect its first female governor regardless of who wins, and New Jersey, where the current Democratic governor is term-limited and no party has held the office for three consecutive terms since 1961.