The Last Democrat - How Barack Obama Is Bringing a Lost Party Back Together

Norfolk, Virginia - It is an image that feels both familiar and desperate at once: Barack Obama stands on a stage, the sun breaking through gray clouds, the crowd cheering, and for a brief moment, it seems as if everything is as it once was. The former president, long a symbol of a better time for Democrats, is back on the campaign trail - as the last anchor of a party that no longer knows who it is.

Obama speaks in Norfolk, a city with two historically Black universities and the largest naval base in the United States. Later that day, he travels to Newark, New Jersey, where nearly half of the population is Black. Two places, two candidates - Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey - both stand as symbols of a party desperately hoping for a sign of strength. The election is on Tuesday, and both Democrats are considered favorites. But the true star of the campaign is neither of them. It is the man who left office eight years ago and yet never truly left. Obama resumes the role only he can fill - that of the moral closer, the rhetorical redeemer of a party that was left adrift after the devastating losses of 2024 - without majorities, without direction, without identity. Now he is back, if only to project the appearance of leadership.

His speeches are less triumphant than cautionary. In Norfolk, he takes aim at the Republicans, but never excessively. He speaks of responsibility, decency, and the duty to reunite the country. “Abigail’s opponent seems very concerned with what Trump and his cronies are doing,” Obama says, without naming the Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears. “She praised a tax law that would raise the cost of health care, housing, and energy in Virginia. It’s like every day is Halloween - only tricks and no treats.” The audience laughs. Then he turns serious: “I warned you.” Two hours later in Newark, he speaks about economic justice and repeats: “There is absolutely no evidence that Republican policies have made life better for the people of New Jersey.” Again, he avoids names, but everyone knows he means Republican Jack Ciattarelli - a two-time loser, this time personally endorsed by Trump as “100 percent MAGA.” Obama replies dryly: “Not a particularly good recommendation.”

Between appearances, Obama calls New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani - a sign that the former president is more than just a symbol. Behind the scenes, he is trying to give direction to a party that has been stumbling for months. Because the Democrats are divided between pragmatism and principle, between despair and nostalgia. Biden and Harris are conspicuously absent. The party has no new guiding star. Instead, it turns back to the old one because no one else can reach hearts the way he does. The economic situation is dire. The Trump-induced government shutdown has paralyzed the country for weeks. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are not receiving paychecks, others are losing their jobs due to layoffs under the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” It is hitting Virginia especially hard, where many federal workers live. And as the shutdown drags on, millions of Americans face the loss of their food assistance - the SNAP program is running out of funds.

“We will be collecting donations for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey,” Mikie Sherrill says at a rally. “The Trump administration is letting SNAP funding expire - families are once again forced to rely on food banks.” In Virginia, the Republican government has declared a state of emergency and is blaming the “Democrats.” But in reality, it is the president’s own decision that is driving millions into hunger.

On Friday, three federal courts ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to continue financing SNAP - a legal blow to a president who has called social programs a “money trap.” Spanberger, once a CIA officer and now a political realist, seizes the moment. “You deserve a governor who will work with both parties to strengthen the economy - not one who stands idly by while Virginia’s workforce is under attack,” she shouts into the microphone. In New Jersey, Sherrill rails against Trump: “I am angry that our president is cutting everything - from the Gateway Tunnel to food assistance. But I am not afraid. New Jersey gives me courage.”

Yet the reality remains complicated. In New Jersey, the race is tighter than in Virginia. Democrats fear that Trump’s gains among Black and Hispanic voters from last year could repeat themselves. Sherrill calls this group the “firewall of democracy.” Her success depends on whether she can keep that wall strong. At the same time, a scandal shakes Democrats in Virginia: Jay Jones, the candidate for attorney general, sent violent text messages in 2022 fantasizing about shooting and killing a Republican lawmaker. Spanberger condemned the messages but did not withdraw her support. Obama and she made no mention of Jones at the rally. The stage remains clean, the controversy stays outside.

And yet, wherever Obama appears, a flicker of hope returns. In Newark, people shout to him: “We miss you!” He smiles faintly. “The country and politics,” he says, “are in a very dark place right now.” A line that lingers. Republicans are using his return as a weapon. “Spanberger and Sherrill have no forward-looking agenda,” scoffs Courtney Alexander of the Republican Governors Association. “That’s why they cling to the faces of a failed past.”

But perhaps that is exactly what Democrats need right now - a face that reminds them of a time when politics still meant something. Obama is no longer a party leader, no longer a president, no longer a candidate. But he is the last moral capital the Democrats possess - the living memory that politics can still have dignity. “There is no greater voice, no more respected voice in our party than Barack Obama,” says Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee. And as Obama raises his hands, smiles, and speaks of faith in what is good, one senses that he knows it. He also knows he cannot carry this forever. But for this moment, in a country on the verge of breaking under its own division, he is once again the president - not in office, but in the heart of his party. The last Democrat still able to strike the tone America once knew.