When the former president did appear onstage on Saturday, supporters went wild with applause and cheers. Obama’s enthusiastic showings for both candidates was a test of whether his sway over the Democratic Party still remains after his support for Harris failed to boost her to the White House a year ago and angered black male voters who felt unfairly accused of sexism.

“Nostalgia is an important part of politics,” said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns. “Of course, everybody’s excited to see Obama in a time when Democrats feel exhausted by President [Donald] Trump and Republicans who seem to have no guardrails or guidelines to what they do.”

Still, Ceraso doesn’t believe Obama is the reason Democrats swept the board in Tuesday’s elections, calling Obama “comfort candy.”

“I think comfort candy isn’t bad when you’re fighting and resisting against a president that none of us like,” Ceraso said.

Overall, despite the blemishes on his record from last year, voters and experts believe that nearly a decade after leaving office, Obama remains the party’s most effective communicator, as the party rebuilds an offense strategy against Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress.

Obama urged voters to send a strong message to Washington that voters are dissatisfied with Trump’s leadership amid a government shutdown, rising prices, and massive economic uncertainty.

“It’s like every day is Halloween, except it’s all tricks and no treats,” Obama cheekily said of Trump.

The gambit paid off, with both women winning by double digits against their Republican opponents.

Voters told the Washington Examiner that Obama’s support brought “joy” to Virginia Democrats and that he was a “fantastic and inspiring” leader — a sharp contrast from last year, when Obama faced mounting criticism over lecturing black men for not supporting the vice president against Trump because of sexism.

“I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama said in Pittsburgh in October 2024 about lagging support for Harris. “Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

The former president reportedly talked with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Saturday, for the second time this year, and offered to be a “sounding board” to the new mayor, whose campaign has electrified left-leaning Democrats, yet worried establishment-minded leaders. “Your campaign has been impressive to watch,” Obama told Mamdani, according to the New York Times.

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The former president remains one of the most popular Democrats and the most popular living president, according to a Gallup survey released in February. Former President Joe Biden is rated as the least popular living president, the survey also showed.

Democratic strategists largely agreed that Obama remains the best communicator for the party nearly a decade after he left the White House, but that may be by default.

“So just to be blunt: We don’t have anyone else. Nobody wants to hear from Joe Biden next, nobody wants to hear from Kamala Harris,” said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist.

“The Clintons have handed off the torch. Obama is still someone for whom there is great affection,” he later added. “The fact that he showed up and did massive rallies, drawing numbers that only he can, at that level, certainly helped to juice turnout.”

“President Obama helped tremendously in getting these Democratic governor candidates over the line, I think for a lot of moderates, and especially the many Obama-then-Trump voters out there, seeing him back on their screens brought people back to a place of stability and basic decency,” Randy Jones, a Democratic political consultant, added. “I think folks remember what his White House felt like, and in a moment like this, that’s so chaotic, that contrast is extremely important for Democrats to highlight.”

Even Obama’s outreach to Mamdani, Jones claimed, was more likely his attempt to support future stars who can counter Trump than an attempt to remain relevant.

“I think the former president of the United States is probably shocked and dismayed about the trajectory of the nation that he served, and he’s willing to do what he needs to do to try to turn this around,” said Jones. “And if that is making a phone call to Zohran Mamdani, regardless of what some in his party might say, I think he’s going to be willing to do those things. I can’t imagine it’s an ego play. I think it has to be a strong desire for a return to a nation that he is proud of.”

Trump’s low approval ratings played a major role in the backlash from voters in New Jersey and Virginia on Tuesday. The president currently has a 37% approval rating and a 63% disapproval rating according to a recent survey from CNN/SSRS. Dissatisfaction with Trump was also a major factor in Obama’s pitch to voters to back Democrats by rejecting the GOP.
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Yet, some Democrats cautioned that the party still has much work to do in raising up another communicator who can meet Obama’s star power.

“It’s sort of a double-edged sword. It’s always great to have a figure like that who can break out and still draw such a huge crowd and have such a positive legacy,” said Kaivan Shroff, a 2024 delegate for former Vice President Kamala Harris. “Somebody like Obama, who it seems like Trump’s so good at sucking up all the media oxygen. Obama’s pretty good at getting attention whenever he wants it as well.”
“But I will say, in the current moment, my reaction every time they kind of trot out Obama is … it is a bit of a statement that there isn’t that new figure or leader,” he added.

Ceraso also remained unconvinced that Obama’s presence on the campaign trail was the difference-maker, saying that Spanberger, Sherrill, and Mamdani “won these elections because they were the right messengers at the right time,”

He continued, “And I think we undermine them as Democrats when we say, well, so-and-so came in that might have helped … no, their campaigns built the infrastructure.”

Still, as the nation’s first black president, Obama holds space in the American narrative in ways few other American leaders can. Much of Trump’s first and second presidential tenure has been in reaction to Obama’s historic 2008 run.

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“There are few people who get under Donald Trump’s skin like Barack Obama. So, always enjoyable to see that,” Shroff said. “So much of Trump’s existence does seem to just be in counter to Obama. He defines himself through Obama, from wanting the Nobel Peace Prize and being obsessed with that, to wanting the love of mainstream media, he just sees himself as always getting less than and being treated unfairly in reference to Obama, who he seems obsessed with.”

“So I do think that part of Obama’s relevance is that Trump and the MAGA movement is defined, so much in opposition to Obama and of course, what he represents as the first black president,” he added.