Obama fans line up to hear him make the case for Harris at DNC

CHICAGO — Samay Sahu’s first political memory was sitting on the couch with his family watching Barack Obama accept his first presidential nomination.

Sixteen years later, Sahu, a 20-year-old New Hampshire delegate, was in the United Center on Tuesday afternoon to watch another historic moment: the nation’s first Black president making the case for voters to elect a Black woman and person of South Asian descent to the nation’s highest office for the first time.

“I’m looking forward to Barack Obama reinstilling hope for so many Americans — hope for a better America where we’re not fighting the other side … and where we’re coming together not just behind a candidate, but behind a message and a vision of the United States of America,” said Sahu, himself a South Asian American person.

Obama is the major attraction in Chicago on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, and he was drawing fans to the venue hours before his address. The former president is expected to "affirm why Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are precisely the leaders the country needs right now, lay out the task in front of Democrats over the next eleven weeks and bring into focus the values at stake in this election and at the heart of our politics,” according to a person familiar with his speech but not authorized to speak publicly.

Delegates gathering inside the United Center to hear him said that when Obama speaks, voters listen.

“Obama is somebody that Democrats trust and that Americans trust,” said Anthony Bellmon, a Pennsylvania delegate and state representative. So we know that if he trusts in Kamala Harris, that she’s going to do a great job.”

Steve Kerrigan, the chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and a former CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said Obama will serve as “explainer in chief” for why it’s “critically important” to support the vice president and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Obama, Kerrigan said, is taking on a role for Harris that is similar to the one that former President Bill Clinton played for him in 2012.

“People trusted Clinton on the economy. They trusted him on many things they were concerned about in 2012, as they trust Obama on so many things here in 2024,” Kerrigan said. “He is a great asset and one of the best campaigners out there, and they’re going to use him to get that message out.”

Tuesday will also mark the first time the country will hear from Obama since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid in July amid a pressure campaign that extended through the highest echelons of his party. There remains tension between the former president and his No. 2, after Obama stayed quiet as his running mate was pressed to exit the race.

Kerrigan expects Obama will follow Monday’s speakers in paying tribute to Biden before moving on to the task at hand — shifting the convention’s focus off the outgoing president and onto his potential successor.

Obama will be preceded by former first lady Michelle Obama, who is expected to "lay out how Kamala Harris is ready to lead our country forward and turn the page on fear and division,” according to the person familiar with the couple’s remarks.

“That’s what is needed,” Kerrigan said. The Obamas “will pay due respect, but then I think move onto the critical issues facing the campaign.”