Barack Obama is campaigning for Kamala Harris in Tucson: What you should know

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in Tucson on Friday, boosting the Democratic nominee in the final stretch of the presidential campaign and encouraging Arizonans to vote early.

The campaign did not say when or where Obama will speak in Tucson.

Former President Donald Trump has a slim lead in battleground Arizona over Harris, a state Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020. President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes four years ago, and political experts here expect the race to be close again this November.

To close the gap, Harris has traveled to Arizona twice in the past month and is sending numerous high-profile surrogates to court voters here.

Former President Bill Clinton, who turned Arizona blue for the first time in a generation with his 1996 election victory, will be in the state Wednesday.

Obama is one of the Democratic Party's most popular figures, but he has never represented Arizona as a presidential candidate. Obama lost the 2008 presidential race here by 8 percentage points to his home state Senator John McCain and lost again in 2012 by 9 percentage points to Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have campaigned in Arizona several times over the past decade. Michelle Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in Phoenix in 2016, and Obama rallied support for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections.

Across the aisle, Trump was in Arizona on Sunday for a rally. The former Republican president has also sent surrogates such as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise to the state in recent weeks.

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