Former President Obama released his latest round of 118 endorsements in high-profile races for various federal and statewide offices in battleground states. The former president threw his support behind 52 Democratic candidates in House races, 5 Senate hopefuls and an abundance of candidates for state legislature races.
NEWS: Barack Obama has issued his first slate of 2020 endorsements: 52 House races, 5 Senate seats and a slew of state Leg races looking ahead to the next redistricting.
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) August 3, 2020
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Included in President Obama’s first round of endorsements thus far in 2020 are a few of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s (DSCC) candidates in high profile senate contests, including John Hickenlooper (CO), Sara Gideon (ME), Theresa Greenfield (IA), Jaime Harrison (SC) and Cal Cunningham (NC); each is challenging a GOP incumbent Senator.
Notably absent from the former president’s initial 2020 endorsements are both Democratic senate candidates in Georgia: Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. Ossoff is challenging incumbent GOP Sen. David Perdue, while Warnock threw his hat into the ring for the “jungle primary” battle for the seat held by Sen. Kelly Loeffler. The DSCC's candidate in Kentucky, Amy McGrath, was also left out of the former president's initial endorsements as she hopes to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The lack of endorsements from President Obama in Georgia is a stark contrast to this time in 2018, when he endorsed four Democratic candidates in Georgia in his first round of endorsements, as the Atlanta Journal Constitution noted. But the former president also declined to endorse Ossoff in his expensive special election bid for Congress in 2017 that ultimately ended in a GOP hold.
The race between Sen. Perdue and Ossoff is rated as a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, but Ossoff’s campaign has been stained by lies about corporate donations he’s received, misleading claims about the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response and hypocrisy surrounding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Warnock’s bid against Sen. Loeffler, as well as GOP challenger Rep. Doug Collins, is even more of a long-shot.
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