Copyright The Boston Globe
Republicans warned their supporters at campaign stops of what they cast as the dire consequences of losses. Though several candidates face long odds in this offseason election, at least two in prominent races are running close campaigns. In the New Jersey gubernatorial race, polls show Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli remains narrowly behind his Democratic competitor. In Virginia, Republican Jason Miyares, the incumbent attorney general, has seen a boost in the polls since his Democratic challenger, Jay Jones, was ensnared in a scandal over violent texts he sent two years ago. Obama, who was last in office in 2017, sought to cast Mikie Sherrill, who faces a very tight race in New Jersey, as a governor “who will do the right thing.” “In a time when our politics feels just so broken, we need leaders like Mikie, public servants who are in it for the right reason,” he said at a rally in Newark. Obama also criticized Ciattarelli, the Republican in the race, and tied him to the president. “Donald Trump called Mikie’s opponent ‘100 percent MAGA’ - not a great endorsement,” he said. Mona Krook, 55, a Sherrill supporter from Spring Lake, New Jersey, said the Newark event was the first political rally she had ever attended. “I was literally crying in the bathroom today, maybe a mix of excitement for Obama and freaking out about what’s happening in our country,” Krook said. She felt optimistic for Tuesday’s results, but - still sporting a Harris-Walz sweatshirt - called the 2024 election results “depressing.” During a campaign rally for Spanberger in Virginia on Saturday afternoon, Obama focused on the effects of what he framed as the Trump administration’s abuse of executive power. “Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” Obama told rallygoers in Norfolk. Spanberger has largely campaigned on her career experience and bipartisan efforts representing a Republican-leaning district in Congress, but Obama called on voters to use the Virginia election to signal to Trump and Republicans that their actions were hurting democracy and working Americans. Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, was one of several Virginia Democrats who also spoke at the Norfolk rally. Support for Jones has tumbled among Virginia voters in the wake of a scandal over texts he sent a state lawmaker in 2022, describing a hypothetical scenario of shooting the Republican speaker of the Virginia House and discussing urinating on the future graves of other political opponents. Jones apologized after reports about the texts became public, but the downballot scandal has been a distraction to Democrats. Spanberger has condemned the texts and declined to either stand by Jones or call on him to end his candidacy, saying it’s up to voters to make up their minds. Obama on Saturday also made a surprise call to another Democrat on the ballot for Tuesday’s elections: New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. On the call, which lasted about 30 minutes, the former president spoke admiringly about how Mamdani has run his campaign and offered to be a sounding board for Mamdani should he be elected, two sources familiar with the discussion confirmed. The pair also discussed early plans to meet in person in Washington. The New York Times reported on the call earlier Saturday. Though Obama has not endorsed a candidate in the mayoral race - part of his general practice to avoid intervening in municipal races - the private call of support for Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is notable given hesitations over his candidacy. Democratic Party establishment figures have been slow to endorse him, and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) has not said whether he will vote for Mamdani at all. Ciattarelli spent Saturday at get-out-the-vote rallies, pulling up to his events in a bus emblazoned with the words “Let’s fix New Jersey!” “Have you seen the most recent polls?” he asked the crowd in Fairfield, New Jersey, on Saturday evening, alluding to the unusually close race between him and Sherrill. Scattered throughout the staunchly Republican audience were homages to Trump, who has endorsed Ciattarelli. A few people wore red MAGA hats. But Ciattarelli has tried to spotlight state issues and dissatisfaction with Democratic leadership in Trenton. He accused Sherrill of basing her campaign on her “hatred of Trump.” “If you get a flat tire today, it’s President Trump’s fault,” Ciattarelli joked. “There is nothing she won’t blame on the president.” In Virginia, Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears wrapped a whirlwind day crossing the commonwealth by headlining the party’s “Commonsense, Not Nonsense” rally at Patrick Henry College, a conservative Christian college in the exurbs of D.C. She has been running much further behind in the purple state, but Earle-Sears has nonetheless embraced the president, though he has not officially endorsed her. She has been emphasizing culture war issues, railing against transgender students in schools, undocumented immigrants, and diversity programs at universities and state agencies. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who is term-limited, told rallygoers at the same event that Democrats did not have “a shred of moral clarity left” because Obama, Spanberger and other Virginian Democrats shared a stage and endorsed Jones. The crowd booed heartily when Youngkin mentioned Obama’s name. “We cannot let this happen. We must win on Tuesday,” he told the half-filled college gymnasium, adding the state needed another four years of Republican control. “We have to get this done on Tuesday. The consequences can be fabulous or they can be bad.” Miyares, who is seeking to thwart Jones’s challenge to the attorney general seat, said voters needed to reject political violence and “send Jay Jones right back where he belongs, which is in jail.” The lieutenant governor nominee, conservative talk radio host John Reid, said his opponent, state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi, raised money from the same contributors supporting Mamdami, drawing a round of boos. Earle-Sears would be the country’s first Black woman ever elected governor, but she did not mention her history-making potential during her remarks as she criticized “politicians who keep wanting to fight the Civil War” so they can turn people against each other and then act as saviors. Trump lost all three of his presidential campaigns in Virginia, which has been disproportionately hit by his second-term cuts to the federal workforce. Rebecca Edwards, 70, claimed a front-row spot and called herself “pessimistically hopeful” about her party winning on Tuesday. “I just keep hoping the Republicans get out and vote and make this state red again.” Trump has done little public campaigning in the topline races where Democrats are using his unpopularity against him, keeping a distance from some GOP candidates and signaling some pessimism about next Tuesday’s elections. In Virginia, Trump has reserved his explicit support for just one statewide candidate, Miyares, who is viewed as the likeliest candidate on the GOP ticket to win. Trump has also endorsed Ciattarelli in New Jersey, where the Republican candidate is aiming to strike a balance in a state where the president’s approval rating is underwater. As rallies took place Saturday, Trump was spending time at Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Florida. By late Saturday afternoon, Trump had posted several times on social media, but none of the posts mentioned support for any of the Republican candidates. Former vice president Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at a Saturday afternoon rally in support of Proposition 50, the ballot initiative championed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that asks the state’s voters to approve new Democratic leaning maps that could yield as many as five new Democratic seats. Democrats hope that will cancel out the redistricting moves by the Texas GOP at the behest of Trump. Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential race to Trump, said Tuesday’s election “is about reminding folks that we refuse to kneel at the foot of a tyrant.” “We stand for principles upon which our nation was founded,” she continued. “We believe in the Constitution of the United States. We believe in the power of the vote, and we are prepared, when necessary, to fight fire with fire.”
