Former President Barack Obama at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix, Ariz., for a Democratic rally ahead of the midterm elections, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.
High-level Democrats are canvassing Arizona trying to garner support for Vice President Kamala Harris's White House bid.
Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General who served in the Obama administration, spoke ahead of former President Barack Obama's scheduled campaign visit in Tucson tomorrow.
“I’m sure he’s going to emphasize early voting,” Holder said.
David Litt, a former speechwriter for President Obama echoed the sentiment, predicting that Obama will stress the importance of early voting given the closeness of the presidential race.
“Democrats, especially young people go out and vote early, early in person, it’s going to make a large difference in terms of both the number of people who are available to volunteer on election day but also the number of votes that are kind of in the bank for the campaign,” Litt said,
Litt suggested that Obama will touch on the future of the country.
“The policy and the broader question of our democracy and whether our country continues to represent us, those are both at stake in this election. That’s why he’s out there so frequently, talking about this in such stark passionate terms,” Litt said.
Litt also expressed concern over former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the election, calling them scary and an affront to policies established during the Obama administration.
Immigration and border security are top issues for Arizona in the race for the White House and U.S. Senate and House races.
Holder, who served as U.S. Attorney General from 2009 to 2015, is no stranger to immigration issues.
In 2010, he filed a lawsuit against Arizona over SB 1070, the state immigration law colloquially known as the “show me your papers” law, which allowed law enforcement to question the immigration status of those they suspected were undocumented.
Holder criticized Republicans in Congress for failing to pass a comprehensive border bill this year.
“There was in fact a bipartisan bill that was supported by members of Congress and that would have passed but for the fact that Donald Trump killed the bill, told his acolytes in Congress not to support the bill and the bill died,” Holder said.
Holder added that Arizona voters also pay attention to the retention bids for Supreme Court justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King as well as a ballot measure that would give judges lifetime appointments.
Obama is not the last high-level Democrat scheduled to campaign in Arizona as Election Day approaches. Next week, former President Bill Clinton is making a swing through the state.
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