A split of Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger. (Getty Images; Getty Images)
Obama campaigned in the Old Dominion state to drum up support for Spanberger, who is the first woman elected governor in the state, just roughly a year after he chastised Black male voters in Pennsylvania for not offering an outpouring of support to then-Vice President Harris' campaign.
"We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running," Obama said of support for Harris' race.
"Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers. So if you don't mind — just for a second, I've got to speak to y’all and say that when you have a choice that is this clean: When on the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, went to college with you, understands the struggles (and the) pain and joy that comes from those experiences," Obama said, continuing that Trump "has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person — and you are thinking about sitting out?"
Former President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press)
Former President Joe Biden also focused on identity politics during his lengthy tenure in the nation's captial, including vowing he would nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court as he went through the merits of candidates. Biden ultimately nominated now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in 2022.
OBAMA ENDORSES SPANBERGER, ATTACKS REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA GOVERNOR'S RACE ADS
"While I've been studying candidates' backgrounds and writings, I've made no decision except one: the person I nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity — and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It's long overdue, in my view," Biden said before announcing Jackson's nomination.
Race, however, was left out of the 2025 gubernatorial race in Virginia as Earle-Sears faced off against Spanberger, with Cameron saying Democrats "played it down" as it did not benefit their party.
"The leadership in the Democratic Party certainly discounts race when it's not somebody from their campaign or not somebody on their side of the aisle that is in the election. And that is what you saw here, is that they discounted it and they played it down, it didn't have much significance," Cameron told Fox Digital in a Thursday Zoom interview.
Virginia Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears addressing the Virginia FREE Leadership Luncheon in McLean, Virginia. (Cliff Owen/AP Photo-File)
"CIA agent, literally, which is crazy, like yeah, vote for the CIA agent, guys, like what the f---," a campaign organizer for Spanberger said in a video with an undercover journalist in September that was first reported by Fox News Digital.
"I don’t know what happened. We’re in, like, the darkest timeline," she continued. "Our only choices are between a Black woman, which ordinarily all for, but this time you think we should bring back slavery, Winsome.… Even with that, it’s like either vote for the Black woman who thinks that slavery should be brought back or vote for the White woman who was in the CIA."
Only two states across the country held gubernatorial elections this off-season election in 2025: New Jersey and Virginia. Earle-Sears was the only Black candidate to run for governor out of the four major-party candidates running in either state.
Former President Barack Obama backed former Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the 2025 gubernatorial election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Cameron said that his tenure as Kentucky attorney general, as well as his run for the Senate, focus on his merit and policies, while encouraging that example be used by all politicians going forward.
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" I want folks to focus on my values when I was the attorney general, certainly," he said. "I won, I think, 113 of 120 counties, and people didn't care what I looked like. They cared about my values. And so I'm optimistic that when it comes to the future of this country, people, here in Kentucky, and I think in Virginia, and a lot of places is: Do you stand with the America first agenda? Are you focused on standing with president Trump? And that's certainly something that I'm focused on in my race here for the Senate here in Kentucky."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-once-urged-black-men-back-harris-he-democrats-reversed-race-rhetoric-legacy-2025