No, not President Biden. He’s still not in demand on the campaign trail, even in a run-off race. Some other big names in the Democrat Party are pitching in to help get out the vote and garner interest in the Georgia Senate run-off race. Former President Obama and musician Dave Matthews are both scheduled to do what they can to draw crowds for incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock.

Getting the endorsement and an appearance by a president is a big deal for a candidate. It’s interesting that the president that Democrat candidates want is Obama and not the current president, Biden. Barack Obama is still the most popular Democrat in the country. Obama appeared with Warnock at a campaign rally in October during the early voting period. This time Obama is scheduled to appear with Warnock on December 1, an important date because it is the eve of the final day of early in-person voting. Early in-person voting has been crucial for Democrats in recent election cycles.

Almost two years ago, Warnock won a run-off election to serve a shortened term. Now he is running for a full term against Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Warnock, however, doesn’t seem to be as popular as Democrats would have us believe. He didn’t make the 50% cut-off necessary to avoid a run-off, which isn’t good for an incumbent. And, his crowds haven’t been particularly large during campaign events. The race is tight and either candidate can win it.

It’s very important that Herschel Walker wins the run-off. Democrats will still have the majority but the Senate committees will have to be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans will be able to slow down Biden’s extreme agenda in committee. The importance of that cannot be overstated. Democrats have secured 50 seats and Kamala Harris is their tie-breaking vote. But, if Warnock wins the run-off, Democrats will have 51 senators, an outright majority. That is where the make-up of the committees comes in. Possible defections from, say, Senators Manchin and/or Sinema, would have a big impact.

Obama is the only significant national Democrat to campaign for Warnock. Perhaps because Democrats don’t really have many members of their party of national significance, but isn’t that a little odd? As soon as the need for the run-off race was determined, nationally known Republicans were in Georgia kicking off Walker’s campaign. Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Tim Scott, to name a few, have been doing events with Walker. Wouldn’t you think that some of Warnock’s fellow senators would be helping him in Georgia?

In his appearance during early voting, Obama blasted Republicans for not coming forward with solutions to Biden’s self-made problems, like Bidenflation, and gave cover for his pal Joe by saying inflation is a global phenomenon. Obama called Republicans a threat to democracy, too, because that was the main talking point during the general election for Democrats.

Warnock is also bringing Dave Matthews to Georgia. Matthews is a Democrat activist and campaigned during the general election for John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Tim Ryan in Ohio. The focus from both the Warnock campaign and the Walker campaign is on swing voters, voters who voted a split ticket in the general election. Thousands of voters voted for both Governor Kemp and Raphael Warnock, as crazy as that sounds. It prevented Walker from winning the general election outright. Matthews is being brought in to appeal to moderate suburban voters. The concert event is even being held in the same venue where Kemp held his election night victory party.

Republicans mocked the Warnock campaign when the announcement of the concert was made, using song titles.

“Haven’t Georgia voters suffered enough?” asked Chris Hartline of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who also slammed Warnock’s link to a troubled apartment tower.

“Also not a lot of ‘Space Between’ Warnock and Biden. They agree 96% of the time,” wrote Erik Iverson.

Alvin the beagle is back to appeal to suburban voters, too. Alvin was used during the 2020 campaign to counter attacks that Warnock is a radical socialist.

It looks like Alvin is back https://t.co/XcnoivMZp6

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 19, 2022

Alvin is adorable. Warnock? Not so much. A socialist is a socialist whether he has a dog or not.