By KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ Former President Barack Obama will join Kamala Harris for a pair of fundraisers next week in support of the Democratic ticket, the pair’s first events together since Harris became Joe Biden’s running mate.
The two will team up for a grassroots fundraiser focused on low-dollar donations and a high-dollar event on Oct. 2, according to a campaign aide with knowledge of the events who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. Both will be virtual. The campaign released a video of the two chatting over video about campaigning and Biden earlier this month.
Biden, now the Democratic presidential nominee, was Obama’s vice president from 2009-2017. Obama joined Biden for a similar virtual small-dollar fundraiser over the summer. In the contest against Republican President Donald Trump, Biden’s campaign hopes to win back some voters who supported Obama in 2008 and 2012 then voted for Trump in 2016 and to motivate Obama voters who stayed home in 2016.
Obama and Harris are longtime political allies. Harris campaigned for Obama in Iowa during the 2008 presidential primary, when she was San Francisco’s district attorney.
In 2010, when Harris was running for state attorney general, Obama endorsed her and attended a fundraising event, giving her a boost in the tightly contested election that she eventually won. Harris was the first woman and Black person elected to that job, just two years after Obama became the nation’s first Black president.
The low-dollar fundraiser will be similar to an event Harris recently held with Hillary Clinton and comedians Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, which attracted more than 100,000 people and raised $6 million. People will be able to join even if they contribute just $1, the campaign aide said. The second event will be aimed at donors who can spend far greater sums of money, though the aide didn’t know the minimum amount.
Biden and Harris raised a record $364 million in August. Harris has headlined more than a dozen fundraisers for the campaign since joining the ticket.