Obama Campaigns for Northeast Democrats During Midterm Elections

President Barack Obama came out of hiding Sunday and campaigned for Democratic candidates in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. He’s calling these midterm elections his last official campaign—which has probably been a bittersweet experience, seeing as how so many Democrats have tried to distance themselves from the unpopular president in the past few months.

“In tight races across the country, Democrats have distanced themselves from his policies, declaring themselves independent from the White House, as Republicans worked overtime to lump them into the same unpopular mold,” a CNN report explains.

But in the Northeast on Sunday, Obama proved himself to be quite useful. He was the keynote speaker at campaign rallies for gubernatorial candidates in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

"Your vote matters,” he told the 1,900 people who came to see him speak in Bridgeport, Conn. “Don’t let people tell you it doesn’t.”

“We’ve got some work to do,” he told a predominantly African-American crowd in Philadelphia, also “reminding the 5,500 attendees that the historic battle for the right to vote must be honored by casting ballots in midterm elections,” CNN explained.

To put Obama’s unpopularity in context, the report noted that most second-term presidents typically don’t receive high favorability numbers during their last midterm election cycle.

“The restricted campaign role isn’t necessarily where Obama wanted to be during the final congressional contests of his presidency, though past second-term presidents have similarly dragged down their party’s candidates,” CNN said.

Read more at CNN.