Obama to N.J.: Vote for Democrat Mikie Sherill for governor to fight ‘dangers to democracy’
Former President Barack Obama brought his political star power to a Saturday rally for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mikie Sherrill, calling on New Jersey voters to deliver a blow to the nationwide conservative movement.
Trying to whip up the party’s base to push Ms. Sherrill to victory in a neck-and-neck race, Mr. Obama cast her campaign against Republican Jack Ciattarelli as a battle against Republicans everywhere. He railed against President Trump, Republicans in Congress and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
“The stakes are now clear. We don’t need to speculate about the dangers to our democracy. They’re here,” Mr. Obama said.
He lamented the loss of civil discourse in the U.S., accused the Trump administration of “weaponizing” the justice system, accused Republicans of “scapegoating” minorities and ridiculed GOP efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
He faulted the Supreme Court for not stopping Mr. Trump.
“I worry about a Supreme Court that, so far at least, has shown no willingness to check this administration’s excesses, even when those actions break all legal precedent and seem to defy the bedrock principle that no one’s above the law,” he said.
On the Democrat-initiated government shutdown, soon to become the longest in U.S. history, Mr. Obama blamed Republicans in Congress for not giving in to Democrats’ demand for continuing the temporarily expanded Obamacare subsidies that otherwise expire this year.
Mr. Obama said Republicans were “not even pretending to try to solve the problem.”
He also made the governor’s race about America’s wealth gap, saying he is worried about the “growing concentration of economic power in the country, with just a handful of mega-billionaires and companies controlling what we see and what we hear.”
While Mr. Obama was there to boost Ms. Sherrill, only a small portion of his speech directly referenced her campaign, and much of that was to bash Mr. Ciattarelli.
“Mikie’s opponent has now run for governor three times in a row. … This time his strategy is to suck up to the Republicans in Washington,” Mr. Obama said. “Donald Trump called Mikie’s opponent 100% MAGA. Not a great endorsement.”
However, the former president said Ms. Sherrill would be a governor willing to reach across the aisle, to represent everyone, regardless of their party.
“Mikie will work with anyone if it helps the people of New Jersey, and she will listen to everyone, too, whether they voted for her or not,” he said. “If we wanna make progress on the things we care about, we have to be able to disagree without calling each other nasty names or demonizing each other.”
